Your Multitasking Nightmare!

How crazy is your multitasking schedule right now?

Do you feel like you are doing too much with very little reward/ results?

Do you feel like you are running out of air, time, money, energy, the will to live, etc.?

Feeling like it is going on and on and on and you never catch a break?

You have come to the right place.

Let’s Work at Changing Your Multitasking Nightmare: Let’s Make your Multitasking WORK FOR YOU

Whether your multitasking involves juggling family, personal, studying, financial, etc. responsibilities or trying to create other spheres of your life, you need a strategy.

Not just any strategy.

You need a strategy that saves your sanity. A strategy that helps you utilize your resources (emotional, physical, financial, etc.) in an EFFICIENT manner.

A strategy that gives you gratification in as many multitasking activities as you are juggling without stressing you out to burn out.

Just So You Know

Human beings have been multitasking since time immemorial.

What is Multitasking and What is its Relation to Income?

Multitasking is the concurrent running of more than one activity. Whether the other task(s) have anything to do with income generation or not, multitasking, in one way or another, affects the ability of a person to focus on the main task eventually.

To some people, multitasking increases their productivity in multiple tasks, hence their income. To the people who are wired differently, multitasking is a distraction.

Is Human Multitasking Possible?

YES. A person can hold more than one Income Generating Activity (IGA).

Not only is human multitasking possible, but it is possible for a person to have maximum positive results from multiple tasks while minimizing his/ her chances of exhaustion, stress or even burnout.

THE ULTIMATE MULTITASKING STRATEGY

This ultimate strategy that will change your life and make multitasking work for you has 6 steps. These steps help you come up with a workable plan at the end of the process. This plan will ensure you have sufficient time and resources for everything including resting and everything else.

For the purposes of making this practical for you, not just theory, I have used an income generation example.

Kindly replace the specific activities I have used in my examples with your personal plan. For instance, you can insert the Example of Business Idea 1 with your activity such as ‘study and get a certificate‘.

Let me jump the gun a little and show you this image (you will find it later on) which gives you a peak into how this strategy works for you.

A Sneak peak Into How Multitasking Looks Like in Income Generation?

In income generation, multitasking refers to the art of juggling 2+ business/ income generating activities in a bid to increase the overall revenue/ income/ earnings.

• For instance, you could have a day job, and still have another offline side business or other streams of income. If you feel like you need to drop one and choose the other, please read this article – Online Jobs/ Entrepreneurship Vs Day Job. It gives an in-depth analysis of the advantages and the disadvantages of each of these ventures.
• For the people who make money online, they could choose to do multiple online jobs (which require diverse skills) from this list of online jobs.
• Other people could still choose to have a day job, several offline businesses, a few online gigs, etc.

The percentage of the population that finds itself multitasking when it comes to income generation is increase by the day.

NB: Remember that most things in life grow through a process.

What Does This Multitasking Strategy Help You Achieve?

Below is my 6-step multitasking formula (plus additional tips) that increases your productivity and minimizes your chances of burning out.

BUT before we go through the steps: Here are the advantages of the concrete 6-step multitasking formula, and why you need to master it.

This formula helps you answer the following queries:

• What do you actually want to pursue? It could emerge (at the end of the process) that you have more or less business ideas than you imagined.
• What capacities do you have to pursue each of the business ideas you have identified above?
• What are your goals for pursuing each of the identified business ideas?
• What contribution do you need to make, in terms of money, time, activity, etc. to lay the necessary groundwork for each of the identified business ideas?

Multitasking Successfully: My 6-Step Multitasking Formula

Step 1: Brainstorm on Potential Business Ideas

Write down as many business ideas/ ventures/ activities as come to your mind. In this initial brainstorming session, do not try to filter, merge, split, or process your venture ideas. List them as they come to your mind.

NB: Remember that you will not conducting your businesses in a vacuum, hence note down  somewhere personal or family time so that you can allocate sufficient time during the very last step.

Step 2: Process Your Multitasking List

Look at your list from afar to see which ideas are similar or have vaguely similar goals. At this stage you can still add more ideas.

Step 3: Vaguely Define the Goal(s) of Each Business Idea

Vaguely (don’t stress over getting overly specific) establish the goal(s) you have in mind for each of your items on the multitasking list. Do not just be overly vague. For instance, do not indicate your goal(s) as ‘money’ or ‘income’. Try a rough figure. You can always edit this accordingly as you progress and your plans become clearer.

During this stage, you might realize that some of the ideas you had by the end of step two (2) fall squarely under the same theme, or they are part of one business theme.

Categorize as you see fit.

Step 4: Shortlist The Items in your Multitasking List

Now that you have vaguely classified your business ideas, and tentatively come up with a final list of items for multitasking, shortlist (if you strongly feel the need to cut short your list) your business ideas.

Otherwise go ahead and highlight the idea that seem most important/ doable to you. Leave the rest of the items/ ideas at the bottom of the list.

Example:

My first blogging and vlogging idea was that of a Writer Platform; a platform where I could showcase my writing prowess as well as help other people who were struggling to get into the Online Freelancing world. I had a great day job too, and a few others blogging ideas.

I started with three blogs and a YouTube Channel. Two blogs died – I realized I had no materials or passion to work on them. One blog survived. A few months later, still with my day job (which I loved and performed 100%), I realized that my new blog and YouTube Channel were niche specific (DIY) and that I would lose/ confuse my existing and potential clients if I introduced content of a different nature.  

A new blog was born since I had a few people seeking my writing, proof-reading and editing services, as well as advice on how to make money online. A new DIY YouTube Channel was also born to exclusively handle DIY videos since the first YouTube Channel got overpopulated with Online-Freelancing content.

In the last one year, I have added two more blogs, and I also got a much better day job in my field.

Step 5: Process Each Business Idea on your Multitasking List

Multitasking requires a keen eye on each of the items on the list.

In this step, look at each business idea in-depth. Get a bit of its working idea. You can, for instance, start visualizing (and writing down) the potential path/ process that would make your idea move from being an idea to something concrete. (Please see the next paragraph and then the graphical representation of the same in the image below it).

Example 1: Business Idea 1

If one of your business ideas/ IGAs, for instance, is to run a boutique that brings in x amount of money, think:

• What do you want to sell in the boutique?
• Who is your audience?
• Do you need social media presence (which accounts) to reach out to your audience?
• Where do you source your stock?
• Do you need a physical shop or will you run it online?
• Will be you be required to register your business or pay some levy/ license fee?
• Will you operate your boutique or will you need to hire someone?
• Do you want to launch a small boutique that grows from its earning or do you want to launch a mega business?
• How much start-up capital do you require?
• Etc.

Example 2: Business Idea 2

If you are an online freelancer (you make money online), think:

• What online jobs do I want to do?
• What skills are required?
• Can I self-teach or do I need to pay for training?
• Where do I get reliable training?
• Which IT hardware/ software do I need?
• Where will I get the online jobs from?
• Do I need to sign-up for accounts?
• What proof do I have to pitch clients?
• How do I start creating social proof?
• Do I need an own freelancer platform where I can showcase my work?
• Do I need a blog? Hosted or free blog?
• How much is my start-up capital?
• How long would it take from the start to earn my first dollar?
• How much income can I realistically expect?
• Etc.

During this step, allocate tentative time spans for each step. Do NOT indicate by when you need the results. Remember you still have other business ideas that need your time and resources. (please see the image above)

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Need Assistance?

If you need assistance, please contact me. I can give you professional coaching;

• Walk you through whatever information is mixed up in your head
• Help you sieve through your information to come up with a concrete plan
• Advice you on the  best way to proceed for each item on your multitasking list

I am Consultant, a researcher, a writer, editor, etc… and I have the knowledge and skills to help you make sense of almost every niche/ field.

Free consultation up to 20 minutes, and, thereafter, $100 per hour.

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Step 6: Compile a Grand Plan

In step 5 above, you were processing each business idea alone.

In this step, you need to have one platform where you can display your multiple plans. This is one of the most complex steps.

However, it is the one step whose final product is the thing that brings to live your multitasking. The end product sorts out your time and resources in a way that allows you to implement all your projects with maximum results, ample time for rest, minimal stress, and time for other personal/ social stuff.

NB: You can make use of different tools

• Software such as Trello
• Old-School, get a flip chart and marker pens or a pen and a paper.
• 
• Write down your business idea: each idea in its column. Leave the very first column blank
• Write the goal (short-term, then long term) of each business idea at the bottom of your writing platform
• Between the business idea and it’s goal, write the requirements to achieve your goal. Do NOT indicate the dates yet, since you will still have to consider the other projects. You might also want to indicate (against each mini step/ question/ answer) how much it would cost you so that you can later work out your budget.

ADDITIONAL/ LIFE-SAVING TIPS WHEN MULTITASKING

1. It may not be easy to remember the exact date/ day of the week/ month you slotted in a specific activity for a certain business. SOLUTION: Print/ paste the grand multitasking plan where you can easily see it.
2. You may not have the budget for every single item/ process that your businesses require. SOLUTION: Google (and other search engines), as well as some people, have all the resources you need. You just need to identify and follow the influencers in your businesses’ niches. They share tips often. For the people whose multitasking falls under ‘how to make money on or with online platforms’, here are 10+1 Online Freelancers whose online presence will enrich your online freelancing career.  They have accounts on Facebook, own/ belong to some of the most helpful Facebook Groups that share online-related information, and some have free or paid courses that you can benefit from.
3. Different stages of different businesses require different input (software and hardware and it can be confusing. SOLUTION: Read/ research widely to find tools that can ease or promote your work. For instance, there are free social media sharing tools, free/ non-paid advertising and cheap advertising with good results, etc.
4. No matter what you do, MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE ENOUGH TIME TO REST.

Multitasking Reality Check

If you don’t take anything about multitasking from this post, take this:

• Sometimes you will not meet your deadlines. It is okay. You have done something, and that is still much better than nothing.
• Sometimes you will achieve way more than you had planned for.? Yaaaay. Congratulation. Invest the extra time in the businesses that are doing great or in the businesses that are lagging.
• Sometimes you will make less  money than you anticipated and vice versa. Plan wisely.
• It is okay to use some ventures to lift the others off the ground.
• If a venture becomes self-defeating, it is okay to drop it. If you get a new business idea that seems viable, allocate some time for it to see how it goes. Sometimes, some businesses die a natural death while others are born mid-way and they thrive first.
• Do not be deceived! Not all ventures are profit-driven (although they may still make money). It is okay to start something out of pure passion. You are allowed to enjoy your life and pursue your dreams.

Final Thoughts on Multitasking

Multitasking is definitely possible. So is getting the most out of it without burning out.

Let me know your thoughts on

• Multitasking

• This post