Chaos

So last Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend an event called The Myth of Multitasking. The event was put on by Key Bank and held in the Great Room at Thanksgiving Point’s Golf Clubhouse (http://bit.ly/HdVBmv). The speaker was Dave Crenshaw (http://bit.ly/Hnlhud), he is an author of a few books, a coach and consultant for many businesses. I had never heard of Dave, but I was very interested in this Myth of Multitasking idea and what he had to say. Dave had obviously accomplished a few things, so I gave a listen. As I stated in a previous blog called Evolve or Dissolve (http://bit.ly/GWPmSi) we all need to improve. I am always wanting to learn more, be educated more and improve more on myself and my business. So I thought Dave may be able to add some useful information, plus it was free, so what could it hurt.

Dave was very charismatic, personable and insightful. He knew what he was talking about, because as he said, he practiced what he preached. Dave provided some insights as to this myth of multitasking, and that it is not really multitasking, but something called switch tasking and/or background tasking. He explained that what we do as humans is we do not necessarily focus on one particular thing and we get distracted but multiple things, phones, e-mail, other people, but we think its multitasking. He also spoke on personal systems and business systems and how these two things are related. Basically if your personal system is not structured properly, chances are your business system is not going to be functioning properly and vice verses. I’m not going to go into everything in detail, because then I’ll get a finger cramp (from typing). But you can go to his website.

Now, there was nothing extraordinary, profound, groundbreaking or earth shattering that he was saying, but it was very simple and easy to understand. It was simplistic. But I believe the hardest part for anyone in the room, will be the execution of the things we learned and get them done. And that’s where most of us in our personal and business lives fail to succeed. Both can coexist, its the simple execution of following through and doing it. The doing is the hardest part.

Today I actually spoke with Dave on the phone for a few minutes, he had gone to the website and gave a brief assessment of what I needed to do and of what I wasn’t currently doing. I explained that it wasn’t anything new that I didn’t already know, because when I was at his seminar I was taking notes on what I needed to execute. His candor was great, straight forward, he asked if it was too brash, I said no. I actually sent him an e-mail thanking him for his candor as it was refreshing. He then asked me to go to his site and fill out the Chaos assessment for Personal and Business Chaos (http://bit.ly/GYpGXI). I did and I am excited to see the results.

Now I don’t work for Dave or his company, but felt I needed to share what I learned and how valuable I found his information. The bottom line there is a lot of Chaos in our lives. No matter how big or small, there is some form of Chaos or distractions in our lives, personal and business. How do we focus? How do you stay on target? How do we balance? I’m far from perfect on all of this, but I am willing to do it one step at a time.