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distraction. There are also phones, break rooms, water coolers and, again, people.

If there’s other stuff going on it draws my attention away from my work and that’s not a good thing. As the mom of a son with ADHD,  I can’t help but wonder if he inherited that gene from me.

Multitasking isn’t a good idea for someone like me.

Close the Windows

You probably have at least half dozen windows open on your desktop as you work. Perhaps you have a particular program or application open to do your most important business task, you might also have a social network or two going, and even email and Skype so you can stay in touch.

Here’s what happens to me with multiple windows.

WordPress is open as I create the day’s blog post. However, I have another window open – whichever browser isn’t crashing on me that day – so I can do research for my post or find applicable links. Those links send me off on tangents and I read some cool stuff having nothing to do with my blog post. Skype pings. I stop and have a conversation. Every now and then I type. But wait, is that my Tweet deck calling? I check for news and tweet to my friends for about ten minutes before pulling away, ending my Skype chat and getting back to my blog post. Outlook is telling me there’s mail, do I check? You bet I do, and I respond because if I open mail and I don’t respond immediately it will get lost in a sea of unanswered email.

This is why I can’t have multiple windows open. In fact, I know very few people who can effectively multitask.Truthfully, work gets done quicker and more effectively without these distractions. It gotten to the point where I turn off the Internet connection and use offline editors for blogging so I’m not tempted to be taken away from my work.

Put the Gadgets Away

You know how I feel about this, gadgets are turning us into rude, rude people. We would never, in real life, abruptly turn away from a conversation to take part in another conversation, yet that’s what we do every time we look at our gadgets while talking with someone else. Ditto at checking gadgets during meals, seminars and public speaking engagements and any time someone else is doing something that requires our attention. I see it during church, during family time have dinner or a movie out, at barbecues and picnics, on the beach. We’re supposed to be enjoying family, friends or life outside of work, yet our attention is diverted to our cell phones and iPads.

It’s funny how quickly we become addicted as well. I gave in to a smart phone a year and a half ago and already it’s something I can’t live without. Can most of my email wait until the weekend is over to receive a response? Absolutely! But I still check it several times while on the supermarket line, visiting the inlaws or watching my son’s taekwondo lessons. Do I need to update everyone on Facebook and Twitter to every step of my day? No. No, I don’t. But I do anyway. Chances are if I cut it down a bit you wouldn’t miss me.

Focus, Deb, Focus

We’re told multitasking is a good thing, that we need to wear many hats to succeed in this fast paced business world, but I’ll argument otherwise. To succeed we need to focus and do a job correctly and to the best of our ability. We can’t do that with half a dozen windows open or stopping to tweet from our gadgets every ten minutes.

I’ll argue that multitasking isn’t a good thing. It makes us rude, easily distracted people.

What says you?