Want to see evidence of a time management problem?  Take a good look at your desk.  If it is completely cluttered with things that need to be done–it is likely you are violating a major time management rule.  If you work on too many tasks at once you are likely to get less accomplished in the long run.

In addition to getting less accomplished, working on more than one task at once also assures that you are less likely to achieve a quality completion of each task.  More tasks will be “half” finished when complete, leaving you with the notion that you are not accomplishing your work the way you would like.  This contributes to your feeling that you must get even more done in less time and that exacerbates the cycle.

The goal is to complete one task at a time and then move on to the next.  File the clutter away except for the project that is the next priority.  Get it finished, filed away and then move on to the next one.  This may mean holding phone calls or putting off fires for an hour or two–but it will be well worth it as you move down your daily plan.

So many top producers consider themselves great “multi-taskers” with pride that one wonders whether this is a strength or a weakness.  Actually, completing one task before you move onto the next does not hurt your reputation as a “multi-tasker”.  If you complete more tasks in a day, you will enhance your reputation.  You just do not need to work on them all every hour.