Dianne WhitfordMultitasking is kind of one of those things where you might feel like you SHOULD be doing it, or maybe you think you should be doing it better. The reality is though, multitasking prevents you from doing an individual task well, it prevents you from actively listening, can damage your relationships, and can be flat-out dangerous.
Join me, Emily, and John for a great discussion on multitasking, how it can hurt you, and what you can do to avoid it.
Coffee Break Podcast: making personal development accessible and helping people grow. One episode at a time.
Have a wonderful week!
Music via Epidemic Sound:
- Enjoy Your Heartbreak (Sting Version) by Martin Hall
Transcript
Dianne: Hey everybody. It’s Dianne Whitford with Coffee, Grit and Inspiration. And this is your weekly Coffee Break podcast. Today I have John and Emily, John from Florida and Emily from Delaware back with me. Hey guys.
John: Hello there.
Emily: Hey, how are you?
Dianne:
I’m doing pretty good. I am sick of being at home. I think everyone is probably sick of being at home, some more than others. So we wanted to take some time today to talk about multitasking. And I think that in today’s environment where a lot of people are working from home, that temptation to try to work on more than one thing at a time, whether that’s answering emails or work on projects while you’re on meetings or maybe try to get multiple projects done at the same time, the temptation is even greater now. I can tell you, I’ve been in live meetings before where people have brought their laptops and tried to get something done or be available on email or something while they’re in live meetings.
Dianne: So the risk is there all the time. And I think there’s a perception that you should be able to multitask, or you should be able to be able to handle that. And that may be true, but there’s also some risks. So we want to talk a little bit about that today, and then talk a little bit about some of the pitfalls that happen when you’re multitasking, and then some ways to avoid it. So when we think about why, why I multitask when I catch myself doing it is because it’s almost like that fear of missing out, you know? Do you guys feel that way too? Like an important email might come in and I need to be available to answer it, or there’s an emergency issue happening right now, I need to be able to answer it or to be available. Those are some of the reasons why I multitask. How about you guys?
John: Yeah, I think for me that it’s that age of information, always having that at your fingertips. And again, to your point, being afraid not to miss something or wanting to be able to respond to something quickly. Right? And then but you’re doing that at the expense of somebody else’s, somebody else’s time.
Emily: Yeah, I think there’s that for sure. There’s that, that expectation that we have as John mentioned, this instant gratification, this expectation that things are gonna happen instantaneously. Communication happens so quickly. And I think in doing that it’s caused us to kind of lose our patience and the appreciation for time. And I think we have so much going on too, right? I mean there’s just so much that we have going on personally, professionally, and I think, you know, just in an, in an effort to try and get those things done as quickly and efficiently as possible, we can overload ourselves and mistakenly think that we can do multiple things at one time.
Dianne: That’s a really good point. And I think there’s a lot of distractions right now, not only because of the state of the world, but also because so many of us are working from home. You know, you get, there’s just a lot happening. Like in a normal day, you might drive to the office and you know, you don’t have your kids or your family or your pet or you know, whatever, the guy coming to the door for the mail or whatever, interrupting your day and kind of making you split your focus. But there’s a lot more of that happening right now.
John: Absolutely.
Dianne: So I wanted to talk a little bit about how John’s daughter made a comment as we were preparing for the podcast about multitasking. And “I don’t know how to do that”. And I think that’s a, a common thing. I think sometimes you hear employers look for somebody who’s skilled at multitasking or you, you think “if I can’t do more than one thing at a time, then I’m not going to get as much done”.
Dianne: Or I have to be able to split my focus. And I think what we need to really understand is that multitasking has a lot of drawbacks. You know, one thing that comes to mind for me is that you can kind of damage your credibility, right? Like if I’m in, you know, a live meeting and someone comes in with their laptop and I see them typing away while everyone else is talking and engaging and contributing, I’m not thinking to myself, “Oh that person is super efficient. That person is, you know, super important”. I’m thinking, “that person is not paying attention. That person doesn’t even care that I’m here, that they’re supposed to be giving me their time right now”. So it kind of can damage your credibility when you’re so focused on multitasking that you’re not really giving a hundred percent to the task at hand.
Emily: Yeah. I think if you peel back the layers of of multitasking and you really think about, I mean it’s at its essence, at its foundation, it is being able to complete multiple tasks at one time, right? It’s within the word. But the reality is, right, we cannot complete, we cannot shift our focus between two tasks at the same time. You’re there doing one task or you’re doing another, but you’re not focusing on two separate tasks at the same time. Even when you think you are, even when you think you’re composing an email and listening to a call, you’re only doing one or the other. You’re not doing both. You may think you are, you may hear the call, you may be composing the email, but you’re not listening and, fully listening, actively listening, and composing that email at the same time. It just you’re physically, mentally, whatever, unable to do that. And there are tons of they, and you could probably attach a ton of research and studies around that to this podcast.
Emily: So yeah, I think it’s about being able to recognize when you’re in that moment what truly you, you know, what you should be focusing on. What does that thing which requires your attention. And then…I gotta pause, take that last part out. My husband just came in here and distracted the hell out of me. Sorry.
John: Oh, we didn’t even hear him.
Emily: No, he just was making hand gestures that I lost…completely lost my train of thought.
John: Multitasking!
Emily: Multitasking! You could probably leave that in, Dianne. Leave that one in and show how Emily can not multitask.
Dianne: That is such a good point though. Like I know that I’ll be, let’s say, on a conference call and my family’s here right now and I’ll be on a conference call and they’ll come in and they’ll be trying to talk to me and I’m trying to listen to them and listen to my conference at the same time. And it is impossible. I can’t listen actively to two people at the same time. It does, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. And so there has to be a point where I’m like, okay, I either need to leave this call and go handle whatever emergency is happening or I need to tell the person talking to me, “Hey, I can’t, I just, I’m sorry I can’t listen to you right now. I am not sorry. Thank you for your patience. I can’t listen right now. Thank you for your understanding!”
John: In my opinion, it induces stress. Stress isn’t, you might not realize it, but obviously focusing on something, on one thing, you’re able to give all your attention to that and you’re able to follow. And to that end that keeps your stress level down. When you start trying to manage multiple screens or emails on top of trying to be an active listener, that stress level increases.
Dianne: Yeah. You know, you’re not really paying attention. Yeah. You’re like putting an added stress on yourself.
John: Absolutely. Yep.
Emily: Well, and then it’s also a time-taker, right? So that time where you’re not paying attention to that call and then somebody asks you a question and you’re caught flat footed like, “Oh, whoops, what? Can you repeat that?
Dianne: Anytime you hear somebody say, “I didn’t quite hear you. Can you say that again?” That is not that they couldn’t hear you, it’s that they weren’t listening.
Emily: The best one is when they say, when they respond with, “Oh sorry, I was on mute. Can you say that again?”
Dianne: Mute had nothing to do with that!
Dianne: Mute doesn’t cause you to not hear, it causes us to not hear you. Let’s get clear on what the mute function does.
John: I heard a really good one the other day, which was, the speaker was talking, they asked a question, and the person that responded was like, “Hey, your microphone was breaking up. I didn’t quite catch that”. I was like, I was like, that’s genius because everybody else on the call heard it fine and I was like, that’s pretty, that’s pretty good.
Dianne: It’s true. You miss important details, you miss when someone asks you a question, you know, you, you can’t respond intelligently and that goes back to the credibility thing, right? When I have to tell somebody, “I’m sorry I wasn’t listening or can you say that again? I got distracted”. It happens. We all know that it happens, but when it happens all the time and every time I’m in a meeting with you, you have one or more times where…Not you guys but somebody, you know what I’m saying? When, when I’m in a meeting with someone and multiple times in that same call, or every single time I have a call with them, they have to ask me to repeat myself because they weren’t listening. Because they were busy focusing on something else. That damages their credibility with me. And I know that it does the same for me when I’m on the phone with other people and I consistently have that problem.
Emily: Yeah. And I’ve done it as part of time management. I mean, I’ve evaluated, I am thinking that I’m saving time by multitasking…and I know we’re spending a lot of time talking about conference calls. Like, cause I feel like, a) we spend a lot of our days on conference calls, especially now spending time on the phones. So we’re a little less accountable for what we’re doing behind the phone. And so we, it’s, we have a natural tendency to try and get more things done. Just be as quick and efficient as possible. And so on these conference calls, right, I have found myself where I will think, okay, I’m going to save time. I’m going to answer these emails, I’m going to work on this PowerPoint deck, I’m going to do this on this conference call. There’s very important information that’s being communicated and I have to go back after the fact and get time with that person, spend more time on, on my calendar to try and get the information that I need.
Emily: I unfortunately, I think both of you have probably been victim of that with me and for that I’m truly apologetic. I will truly apologize for wasting your time and my time, but the more you kind of, the more that becomes evident when you look at where you’re spending your time and we could go back and do a whole conversation. I know you’ve hit on it a couple of times, Dianne, on time management, but you can go back and do a whole one on how time management is affected by multitasking. And how much it sucks up because again, can’t do two things at one time. So you end up having to go back and do it again.
Dianne: Yeah! It’s like it takes you longer to do each thing. If I’m trying to do two five minute tasks at one time, it’s gonna take me 20 minutes. Because I can’t just do one and then do the other and keep your focus on that one thing. It’s really, it’s really true. And, and everybody is guilty of it. Like I can tell you, I’ve looked at my calendar and said, Oh, that’s a two hour meeting where all I have to do is listen. I can work on this PowerPoint during that time, no big deal. And then inevitably I’m in there. I’m working on my PowerPoint, I’ve totally tuned out the conversation in somebody who’s like, “Dianne, what did you think about that? And I’d be like “uh your microphone just broke up. Oh, sorry, I was on mute. Can you say it again?”
Emily: Well and I think it’s probably a good podcast episode because that goes actually back to your being a good meeting participant. And knowing why you’re even in that meeting. And we have, we’ve had some really good conversations within our work organization about that. There’s a great person who I’m sure you would be more than happy to have on your podcast to lead through that, but, but he’s done a great session about being a good meeting participant and that means if you look at that meeting and go, “Oh, it’s a two hour meeting that I can multitask on”, then why the heck are you even getting on that meeting? If, if, don’t waste your time… With that. Well that’s a whole other conversation, but definitely look for those cues when you’re multitasking and trying to figure out, should I be doing this, should I be doing that? And if, and if it comes down to I could do this on that call, then maybe you shouldn’t be on that call.
Dianne: Maybe you shouldn’t. A lot of it comes down to being able to prioritize. If you’ve got two things you’re supposed to be working on at one time, then you need to understand what’s the priority. And you have to figure out ways to identify relative priority of multiple things that you have to get done, so that you can just do one at a time and do it in the order that’s of importance. Like you have to be able to do that. And if that means, I have a two hour call, I need to work on this PowerPoint for 15 minutes and then I can join the call, do that work on the 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and join the call a little bit late and you’re not going to miss that much and at least you’ll be focused on one thing at a time.
John: I agree with that. I think the other thing is a lot of people confuse multitasking with time management. There’s a, there’s a difference there. So being a good, being somebody that’s excellent at time management is probably somebody that doesn’t multitask or does what you just said, right? Right. They prioritize where they’re putting their time so that they can remain of singular focus. Because in my opinion, I think that we’re all guilty of it. Multitasking leads to mistakes.
Dianne: Oh yes, yes. Typos, stupid little mistakes that you wouldn’t even care. You wouldn’t even make otherwise.
John: I, I’ve been a victim of sending out an invitation for the wrong day or the wrong time because I’m also participating in a call where I should be listening. I’m listening and I’m trying to do two things at once. It’s just not working.
Dianne: Yep. That is so true. I’ve sent out emails to the wrong people. I’ve sent out emails without key details because I’m rushing and I’m doing more than one thing at a time. I’m supposed to be working on this and instead I’m doing this or I’m trying to do them both at the same time. And so you have a bunch of errors. And we talked a little bit about some of the ways to avoid it. You know, like Emily you mentioned, and it’s such a good point, that aside from multitasking, if, if you want to manage your time correctly, you have to make sure that every minute that you’ve decided to pay attention to something is worth it. And so if you’re, if you’ve got your day booked up with meetings and you’re just going from meeting to meeting to meeting because it’s on your calendar, there needs to be a time where you’re looking at that and assessing, I have some other things I have to get done today.
Dianne: I don’t want to multitask. So, which of these do I have to be at and which can I catch up in recaps or can I watch a recording later or whatever so that I’m not on those calls trying to do more than one thing at a time. One thing that you can do to avoid the temptation, I think, when you’re either on calls, whether that’s on a conference call or whether you’re going live to a meeting, is don’t take your laptop with you when you’re going into a live meeting. Just take notes on a piece of paper. That stuff still works. Pen and paper still works. We don’t have to take notes on a laptop. And when you’re on your laptop, and you’re just there to, you know, you just just got your laptop to “take notes”. And I’m using air quotes because I might be on my laptop to take, but…”Oh an IM just popped up and maybe I need to answer that real quick and I better just check my email really quickly while I’m in here”. And so now I’ve distracted myself from the meeting and the people in that meeting took the time out to come and be there and be face to face with me. And so if I’m sitting there in that meeting doing other things, I’m wasting everybody’s time. So you can, one thing to avoid is taking your laptop to meetings or if you have to take your laptop, leave it shut, just leave it shut and only open it on breaks.
Emily: I would even challenge that Dianne, and say, if you’re just going to take your laptop to leave it shut, why take it?
Dianne: The only thing I’m thinking of is that sometimes they do ask you to connect to a WebEx so you can see on your own screen. You know what I mean? But unless you have an actual use for it, then why bring it? Why bring it?
Emily: Yeah. I think for me it’s just even that temptation, right? It’s even just having the laptop there and it’s like, Oh it’s calling to me open and do just one email won’t hurt. And, and similarly with cell phones, right? I mean…
Dianne: The phone is the worst!
Emily: Yeah. That’s the worst. Live meetings and cell phones are the worst. And I love people who like put it down on the table, like face down on the table, like, like that’s actually doing anything. Cause the reality is, is it’s vibrating and then they look at it, they look at it and then, just let me get this. You know? And it’s, it’s so disrespectful. I mean it’s just…
Dianne: It is, it’s so disrespectful. It’s the same thing as I’m in a meeting with somebody and they start checking their watch. Or they pick up their phone and I’m talking to them and they pick up their phone. Well that’s what you’re doing when you’re checking your emails while you’re on the phone with somebody is you’re essentially picking up your phone and taking your attention off that person. And if they were able to see you doing that, it’s so disrespectful. So disrespectful. And I’ve done it so many times. That’s how come I know that it’s disrespectful. I’ve done it. I have had people do it to me.
John: Yeah, I think there’s this, there’s this, there’s this misconception, right, that we don’t multitask. Well we absolutely do. I am literally the guy that can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. And so that in itself is what you just said, the phone, like taking the phone, putting it face down. I think that those are all attempts, but the reality is if it keeps going off, you are going to pick it up. You are going to look at it. So it is disrespectful or just sends the message that what I’m, what I have in front of me is more important than what you’re saying to me. You know?
Dianne: And how can, to your point earlier, John, how can you actively listen when you’re being distracted? You know, the whole point with actively listening is, my focus is on you and I’m listening to what you’re telling me and I’m taking it in with my whole body. I can’t take it in with my whole body except my eyes, which are glued to my phone.
John: Yup. The one thing that I will say that I do, because now we’re at this age or we’re in this world of remote working and so for me the phone becomes a distraction when I’m just trying to stay of singular focus. And so what I do actually, is I put it, I do put it face down, but then the next thing that I do is I put on my noise canceling headphones and I put some music on, which allows me to kind of focus on that. So I know the phone is there and if my headphones were off I would be tempted to look at it. But this is just another avenue that helps me stay away from that.
Dianne: Yeah, using the headphones is a good one. Another thing I like to do is block out my time. So if I’ve got five things I gotta get done by the end of the day, I try to take some time in the morning and think, how long is each of these things going to take me? And block out time for those specific things, where I’m not trying to do all five of them at the same time. I’m doing them in order of priority so that by the end of the day I have all this, all this stuff done. And then another good thing, it is also related to time management, but at the morning have a look at your calendar. What in your calendar can you not go to so that you’re not splitting your focus and then leave that time blocked so that you can not get another meeting come in during that time, but you’ve got it blocked for whatever task it was that you needed to do that was more important.
Dianne: And I think we don’t want to like, it’s hard to say your meeting isn’t important, I don’t need to go. Like it’s not a personal thing when you do that, it’s “I can’t go to your meeting and give it my full attention. And you deserve my full attention and I can’t give it to you for today because I’ve got whatever else going on. And so I’m not going to be able to be there, but please include me in the recap so I can, you know, or let me know if there’s something I need to deliver specifically” and that’s okay. I would rather someone tell me that than go to my meeting and not pay attention or not contribute.
John: Yeah. So we work on projects together and I think that we do a good job of on some of those, in some of those meetings of “do I need to be there?” Right, of asking each other that and then also relying on, “Hey, you know, Dianne, I can’t be at this meeting. Would you mind covering for me? I’ll connect with you after”. I think that’s a conscientious choice, a favorable choice, rather than going in there and you know, half participating again because to your point you do lose credibility.
Dianne: Yeah. And you know, when I, when someone’s on a meeting with me, I think to myself later, if someone was like, “well, did you make sure to include so and so?” And I’d be like, “yeah, he was there at the meeting”, but how do I know he was actually paying attention? I would much rather like be able to rely on everybody at that call that I know that they were all engaged and they were all paying attention so that I don’t have to worry that somebody in that meeting didn’t hear the message, you know?
John: Yep. The other thing is I think it, it leads to like that lack of attention leads to your inability to recall information, right? So you actually create work for yourself by having to circle back with people and you know, Hey can you summarize what you meant? Because I’m, and I think that that over over time it can kind of erode your relationship with somebody if you’re continually having to do that. Right? So you spoke about your credibility suffering that that overall, that relationship is going to be impacted by your credibility, suffering and your continuous not paying attention or you know, multitasking. And I think that we don’t give, I think that multitasking is kind of a cop out. I think we, we say that and really what you should be saying is I wasn’t focused on a single thing that you just said because this email was more important.
Dianne: Yeah. That’s what it is. If, if you’re drawing your attention away from something that someone is saying to you, and going and checking your email, what you’re implicitly saying is, this is more important. This is more important. And how devaluing is that to the person? And if you’re doing that all the time to the same person, you’re absolutely right. Your relationship with them will suffer because they’re like, “they never listen to me. I invite them to these calls and they never pay attention. They never contribute. They never, they’re always asking me afterwards, I didn’t understand this part”. Yeah. That’s cause you weren’t paying attention. Honestly. So we’ve talked about a few ways to avoid multitasking ways to, you know, try to focus. And ultimately I think it comes down to you have to be disciplined about it. You know, there’s no surefire way of, if I do this every time, I’m never going to accidentally multitask again. You have to be disciplined about it and you have to be intentional. I think.
John: The only other thing that I would add is I think that we’re talking about multitasking. You know, we’re kind of focused on multitasking in the workplace, but really like multitasking while you’re driving, multitasking at home. I mean, you know, there’s potential danger in that.
Dianne: Physical danger. Like real physical danger.
John: Absolutely. You know, how many times have you, you know, and we all know that texting and driving is something that you shouldn’t do, but how many times have you done it and realized, man, I, I wasn’t, you’ve gone back and kind of recollected that. I don’t, I don’t even remember driving that last half mile.
Dianne: Yes. And you don’t even have to be texting. It could just be letting your mind go completely elsewhere and just driving on autopilot. That’s awful. That’s exactly right. I’m so glad you brought that up, because it’s not just in the workplace that multitasking can be dangerous.
John: Yeah. And let’s just say that’s, let’s agree to say this, right? Nobody’s good at multitasking.
Dianne: Yeah. And everybody does it. Nobody’s good at it. And everyone does it.
Emily: When you were talking about having the laptops open in the meetings, you know, one of the things that I was going to, that I was going to mention is that kind of our behaviors set the example for others, right. Regardless of your title, regardless of what your role is within the organization, your action, your behaviors, how you engage in conversations, whether they’re live or over the phone meetings. If you start that trend, others will, will follow and pay attention. So especially in positions of leadership, when you’re in those types of circumstances, people will follow your lead. And so just having awareness as to if you’re walking into some of those meetings and not paying attention to the presenter or not paying attention to the content that’s being delivered, that there may be an assumption that then other people will disregard the same. So just having mindfulness around that.
Dianne: That is so true. You set the example. People…Whether, especially if you’re a leader, but even if you’re not, when you go into a meeting and somebody has got their phone out and they’re texting and doing whatever, it gives the impression that this is more casual. This is not a formal meeting. This is not something I really need to pay attention to cause he’s not so, so I’ll pull my phone out and we’ll all just start checking. You know, or maybe there’s some important thing happening and I’ve got to go check my email to see if I’m included on this important thing happening. And it’s, it doesn’t only damage your relationship with the person having the meeting, but it could damage others relationships with that person too. And it’s just, I think it just really comes down to what you guys were saying before about it’s disrespectful, it’s just disrespectful.
John: You both know that I coach softball. And I coach with a woman named Heather and one of the things that Heather is really good at is when we are on a break during a tournament and we decide that we’re going to go out to lunch or something like that, the girls will go sit at their own table and sure enough, what’s the first thing that they do. You know, they get out and they start chatting on their phones and they’re not really paying attention and there’s not a whole lot of conversation going on. And one of the things that Heather does, which I love, is she’ll go around and she’ll collect all the girl’s phones. And she’ll, she’ll put them in a, in a bread basket, you know, in the middle of the adult table and it forces the girls to interact. And there hasn’t been a single time where the girls haven’t just started chatting and you know, the table gets loud and you can see like there’s a very favorable response to people directing their attention again to that singular focus.
Dianne: I love that. I love that.
Emily: I love that too, John. I mean you just, you don’t think about how multitasking, whether it’s watching TV, whether it’s looking at Facebook, whether it’s reading a book when when you’re sitting with other folks or, or supposed to be engaged with other folks, can potentially be dangerous to those relationships. And how they can, they can degrade the relationship or prevent it from, from growing stronger. And one of the most beautiful moments that I, I pray that at some point I can recreate, was a moment when a co teammate of ours was very sick and we had an opportunity to go out to eat with this, with this person. And unfortunately was was quite ill and we, we felt like this was probably going to be the last time that we would, we would honestly see this person and the way that we sat around that table, in that moment, there wasn’t a single phone out, there wasn’t a single distraction on that table.
Emily: It was completely and utterly dedicated to just the friendship and the fellowship with the people around that table. It was the most beautiful moment. And it was so funny because it happened so organically. It’s like when you just want to hang on to every word because it could be the last one. It’s amazing how your body and your mind will respond. And it’s almost like you don’t take for granted then the fact that you know, you can go to Facebook after this conversation and see what so-and-so posted about their poodle. Like, that’s, I mean, you don’t need to be distracted with that. But yeah, John, I love that example cause it, it just took me back to that moment and how all of those distractions were eliminated, every single one of them. And just complete and utter focus on that person. Who unfortunately passed away a couple of months later. So it was a beautiful moment that I’m so thankful for just being present and being, being there and not being distracted by that.
Dianne: That’s really beautiful. That is really beautiful and such a wonderful point.
John: The last thing that I will bring up is we talked about one of the physical traits or one of the physical, I guess, manifestations, of how multitasking can distract you is how many times have you seen somebody that’s on their phone driving? Are they typically going the speed limit or are they, are they slowing everybody down? Right. And so I think that that’s just a, that’s a, that’s a really good way of looking at how, it just kind of personifies how multitasking, you know, can impact what it is that you’re doing.
Dianne: And it slows everybody down. I think you’re right. When we have to stop in a meeting and rephrase whatever was said because somebody wasn’t listening or they were busy answering an email or an IM or typing an IM or doing something like that and so they didn’t hear, we have to go back and talk about it again. Then that’s wasting everybody’s time. It slows down the whole group.
John: Collectively, right? So we have, I spent 10 seconds and collectively over 20 people on the call. I just wasted two or three minutes. You know?
Dianne: It’s really true. It’s really true. Awesome. So some, just to recap some of the things you can do, you can block out your time. Really stay dedicated. Be intentional about doing only one thing at a time. Be intentional about where you spend your time. Are you going to attend this meeting or are you going to work on this PowerPoint presentation? Don’t try to do both at the same time. When you’re doing things in real life, when you’re present with people, be present with them. Don’t be on your phone. Don’t be trying to do other things at the same time. Don’t take your laptop to live meetings, shut down your email or your IM while you’re on an important…Well, if we’re going to be not multitasking, then you should only open your emails and your IMS at certain points in the day when you’re not in another meeting.
Emily: Now I’m going to feel bad if I, if I see your status is in a meeting, I’m going to feel bad. If I say, can you jabber? I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t support noncompliance in multitasking.
Dianne: What I do is say, when you’re available, blah, blah, blah. Here’s my question. Cause what also happens is, I’ll go and check someone’s IM, I’ll see that they’re not available. And I’ll say, Hey, when you got a sec, and I’ll forget to say what it is that I’m talking about. And then 20 minutes later they come back and they’re like, did you need something? And I’m like I don’t remember. I don’t remember now. I don’t remember.
Dianne: I really appreciate both of you guys taking the time out on a weekend to spend with me and do this podcast. I just really appreciate both of you. And if there’s nothing else, I’ll go ahead and wrap it up.
John: Yeah, no, I appreciate you allowing us to participate. This is always, yeah, I always walk away with some things that I need to make adjustments on. I’m not going to lie.
Dianne: I do them because I need to learn it as well. This is a topic I want to get better at.
Emily: You can do a whole topic, right? Isn’t that one of the seven habits, teach to learn? I’m the same way. Like my, one of my things is, I may not be really good at it, but the more that I teach and coach and encourage other people to do that behavior, actually, the better I do become at it. The more intentional I become at it. So I’m very much like that.
Dianne: Teaching to learn, teach to learn. I love it. I love it. And on that note, I will go ahead and wrap it up. You guys have a wonderful rest of your weekend. I’ll talk to you guys next week. Bye guys.
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