Nine ways to de-stress your work day

Dave Crenshaw believes the concept of multitasking is a myth. The author, speaker and business coach conducted a time-budgeting exercise with a chief executive officer for a national company. While reviewing how much time she spent in a given week, the executive was over budget in what she thought she could accomplish, Crenshaw said. The CEO, who considered herself highly adept at multi-tasking, accomplished 188 hours of work while there are only 168 hours in a week. Crenshaw learned that the extra time came from combining work research with family time. But in reality, she spent very little time with her family. Multitasking really means switch-tasking: switching rapidly between one task and another. There is a cost with each switch, no matter how quickly it takes place, Crenshaw explained. Switching-cost is an economic term, and the cost is high. Once the executive understood that the switch-tasking hurt her business and her family, she committed to make changes. The following are suggestions for managing our time realistically.