Do this and you might as well have smoked a joint before work

October 8, 2010 by Michele McGovern

Posted in: Communications, Customer Service, Special Report

You probably do something at work several times a day that lowers your IQ more than smoking pot or losing a night of sleep.

If you let yourself get distracted by incoming e-mail, text messages or calls you don’t have to take, your IQ drops 10 points, an Institute of Psychiatry study found.

Multi-tasking can make customer contact center professionals act dumb, researchers say. What’s more, switching from task to task – say finishing post-call work and reading e-mail as it comes in – makes people less productive, not more efficient, other research has found.

In contact centers, customers need and expect focused attention (even if they don’t give you all of theirs – because they’re often guilty of calling, texting and eating at the same time, too!)

You may think you can’t stop multi-tasking: How will I get it all done?! But people who’ve tried it for a week or two found that everything got done because they were so focused on the work at hand, it got done faster and better.

So try some of these tactics to stop multi-tasking and stay focused on customers and work:

Turn off the alternative. If you have to be on the phone, turn off your e-mail program and cell phone that receives text messages. If you’re on e-mail, send calls to voice mail. If you’re writing, filing paperwork or meeting with people, turn off all the electronics.
Set shorter deadlines. Plan shorter meetings. Cut project deadlines in half. Get back to customers hours or days before you promise. The shortened time frame will force you to be focused.
Set a schedule. Post the times you’ll respond to e-mail and text messages, answer and/or return calls, be available to meet, work quietly behind closed doors. Once you stick to those times, co-workers won’t interrupt you (as much) and customers will know what to expect (although, they may demand differently – and you can adjust accordingly).

Tags: Institute of Psychiatry, IQ drops, multi-tasking, post-call work

2 Responses to “Do this and you might as well have smoked a joint before work”

Faith Trusts Says:
October 11th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
I have a question though…
What if you have a job that requires you to multi-task?
I work in a job where, when someone leaves, they never hire someone to replace that person. Instead they tell you that they want you to do something briefly and before you know it, it is 5 years later and you are still required to deal with customers via phone, email, and fax. On top of that they expect you to cover the front desk for the receptionist while she goes to lunch, prepares materials for production and take care of secretarial duties for the department that you work in, all at once. Sometimes even work in other areas that are short handed and still perform all your other duties.
Sometimes it is not that you want to multi task… it is that you are required to do so.
So are our minds being ruined by force from our employer?
Bob Says:
October 11th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Yes, possibly true at he personal level. Good for me… the heck with everyone else, right? I’m thinking that this advice deeply depends on who you are, and what job title (position in your company) you may have. That is… others around me may not be as productive, leading to an overall less-productive center, or company. People interact with each other throughout the business day. If Joe is waiting on Mary to allow him to continue his project, he is less productive and being paid to sit and wait. If Joe moves on to something else as he waits (via email, or other) then good for him and the company. On a personal level, I find this concept true even among my mere projects. If I’m waiting on two answers that come by way of email, or voice, I get on it right away simply as a way to continue what I started in the first place. Customers may be put off to another day if I wait (perhaps). Losing a sale, creditability, or other’s time.
Not that this happens a lot, but I find myself waiting on my immediate boss at times. He is the one paying the bill ultimately, so I shouldn’t let it bother me. Even so, it urks me that the company isn’t being productive if he is putting me off for some minor thing, all because he thinks “he” needs to focus in “his” project. Meantime, he is paying me X-amount per hour to sit and wait (sometimes hours).