This past week I read the insightful and incredibly useful book The Myth of Multitasking by Dave Crenshaw. In a society that demands we switch our attention from one thing to the next virtually every few minutes and our ADD is heightened with a trained 140 characters to communicate via Twitter, it really is no wonder that we all feel we have become masters of multitasking! Or have we…

The author explains that science shows we really are inifficient at doing two things at once, and what is really happening is a switching from one focus to the other at a very quick pace- yet, in doing so we lose time and produce inferior results because our focus is not completely on the task at hand. Truth be told, you really have to read the book- it is a painless journey of this discovery and helps you build gradually to understand that instead of multitasking we are switch-tasking. Crenshaw goes on to outline how to become a better switch-tasker.

Which leads me to the lovely chart below. He encourages us to do this exercise where we write out all or the daily activities that we give time to and the estimated the time we feel we give to each task. Try it. Write it all out and then add up your hours at the end. You will see where you spend your time and how much time you really have in a day.

I want to take it a step further, because I like the column that says Future. Having a visual to show you where you spend your time and then also being able to write out where you want to spend your time is pretty powerful. Doing an exercise like this is critical for your path of self-development. Time is one of the most valuable things we can take for ourselves and offer, so clearly knowing where yours is spent is vital.