It is very common these days to hear people talk about multi-tasking. Many believe multi-tasking helps them to be more efficient, get more things done and generally be available to everyone all the time. Ready access to information through Blackberrys, cell phones, text messaging and e-mails perpetuate the ability to multi-task.

But numerous studies have demonstrated that multitasking — at least in the way that most people hope it will work — doesn’t really exist. Sure, most people can walk and chew gum at the same time as the old saying goes, but if you used your mouth to walk it would be significantly more difficult. The point being, when you start to use the same or even similar cognitive skill sets during multi-tasking, it becomes literally impossible to do two things at once.

For example, talking on the phone and reading email is not possible because it requires very similar verbal processing skills in your brain. Talking on the phone while driving, an activity that has been studied intensively by scientists and highway safety experts, is possible, but even that tends to severely degrade one’s driving skills. And many states are imposing significant penalties for texting and driving, because not only is texting a distraction because it requires concentration to think and type, but it also typically requires people to look away from the road. So, forget it, texting and driving is impossible.

Instead of excelling at multi-tasking, people are actually best at “task switching”. We are good at applying focus for short periods of time on multiple things, but this attention is almost always sequential. One 2005 study found that many people were interrupted at work approximately every 11 minutes. After each interruption, it took about 25 minutes to circle back to the original item. Frequent task switching can seriously erode productivity because of the time required to switch from one task to the next.

At one company I worked at one of our develops had stopped listening to her headphones at work. Initially, I thought it was an effort to concentrate more on her work and less on the favorite songs that were playing in her ears. But as it turned out, she had stopped listening to her head phones, because she couldn’t listen to a single song from beginning to end without being interrupted by someone in the company asking her a question! Considering that the average song is only about 4 minutes long, this poor woman really only was able to complete her work before the rest of us got there or after we left.

Determining the right rate for your services is difficult and sometimes an arbitrary process. A survey of the rates negotiated by IT service providers for the State of Colorado shows a very wide range of rates with the highest rates sometimes three times larger than the lowest rate listed.

With the current expansion — after almost 5 years of contraction — of IT services, experienced consultants and service providers should expect to be able to negotiate within the higher end of the band. However, this will be limited by their ability to offer newer technologies or solid experience in particular methodologies or industries. More than ever, it is becoming important to specialize, as most recruiters won’t consider candidates that don’t have experience in particular industries or with particular sets of tools.

Average hourly rate using data from 39 IT services companies serving the State of Colorado in 2005-2006.

………………………………………………………………………………
What If Project LLC offers leadership and project management coaching and consulting for small and medium-sized technology companies. To learn more about how to market your consulting services or receive a complete copy of the survey contact us via What If Project.

The Brand You 50 by Tom Peters

This book is fun to read, especially if you’re feeling a little manic. The Brand You 50 is what you need if you want to get better at selling yourself. Tom Peters reminds us through this extended list of essays that it’s all right to be in love with yourself and what you are doing. In fact, getting excited about the quality and the importance of your work is the only way to make any project fun and rewarding. This book contains a number of interesting and meaningful tips about how to think about what it is that you offer to the world of work or just in the world. My only complaint is that it’s difficult to read, because of his incessant use of ALL CAPS and W-O-R-D-S spelled out in ALL CAPS. This certainly drives home his point about being distinctive, but it’s annoying after 3 pages.