Tough Choice: to multi-task or stay present?

I’ve been in a two-day offsite meeting; focused on strategic planning. First comment is - it is exhausting. Using your brain to think about something new, innovative and strategic is draining. The outcomes of the two-day sessions where exactly what was desired by the entire team: so the victory felt great! The dilemma that continually plagued me over the 2 days was…do I multi-task or not?

I personally believe I am good at multi-tasking; it does help me be throughout the day to accomplish a great deal. HOWEVER, it should be used judiciously. Multi-tasking through a meeting that I am not a key stakeholder is completely acceptable to me. I am sure there are lots of debates about whether or not multi-tasking is actually successful to accomplishing more during the day or not. The simple point is; it is my opinion that I can be successful with multi-tasking.

During the course of the last two days I choose NOT to multi-task. The meetings were intended to use my thoughts and opinions to aid in the development of a strategic plan. Having my brain pulled in multiple directions was not conducive to being creative nor complete in my thoughts. It was tempting, really tempting. I sat next to my peers using their devices heavily and I am sure keeping current with emails. The ratio in the room was approximately 50/50 – 50% of people choosing to stay in the present and 50% who chose multi-tasking.

I was inspired by that and made my choice based on knowing what I wanted my level of contribution to be. I understand the consequence of my choice; the sheer number of emails awaiting my response will take hours to combat, likely a dedicated Saturday morning to catch up. There will be issues I missed and needs to provide guidance for my team, there will be requests from my client (aka boss), and general administrative items that need to be addressed. I am willing to pay that “tax” for the purposes of being in the present and participating in the strategic planning session. The chaos that normally resides in my brain, has been quite, I’ve been focused and contributed to my fullest. Happy with my choice not to multi-task through a 2 day offsite.

#multitasking #multitask #present #choices