Career Tips - Issue # 28 (Jan. 2006)

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Multi-tasking: Focus on Core Tasks

When you think of a nurse, what picture comes to your mind? Someone dressed in white, attending a patient or assisting a doctor? But that's less than half the real picture.

According to Peter Drucker, nurses in a hospital were once asked what they were paid to do. They replied, "To take care of the patients and assist doctors." And the second question was, "How much time do you spend doing that?" They replied, "About 30%." So, what they were doing rest of the time? It turned out they were engaged in administrative (paper) work most of the time.

When you think of a professor, what picture springs up in your mind? Teaching a class? That's again less than half the real picture.

A university professor once told me, "I come to my office around 7 am and I invariably work over weekends as well. But I spend only 30% of the time teaching. Rest of the time, I am handling students' projects, checking papers or doing some administrative work."

To an observer, a nurse should nurse, a manager should manage, a teacher should teach, and a leader should lead. The reality, however, is different.

We all work in a multi-tasking environment in which most people, if not all, are expected to do a wide variety of tasks. But that's where lies a major pitfall: Losing focus!

Basically, for every position in an organisation, there are two types of tasks: core tasks and non-core tasks.

Core tasks are those that a person is ideally hired for, paid for and supposed to do. Core tasks are unique to each position. When we focus on core tasks, we produce solid results and enjoy a sense of accomplishment. No two persons in an organisation are hired or paid to do the exact same core tasks.

Non-core tasks comprise supporting activities that may be necessary, but no one is paid just to do them. For example, meetings are necessary, but no one is paid just to attend meetings. Reading and writing e-mails is necessary but no one is hired just to do that. Signing documents is necessary but no one is hired just to sign documents.

Non-core tasks have one peculiar characteristic: These tasks attract us. The reason? Non-core tasks are typically easier to do and allow us to stay in the comfort zone. This is the reason why people happily spend huge amounts of time reading/writing/forwarding e-mails, talking over phone, signing documents, attending ill-conceived meetings, touring and just chit-chatting (so called discussions).

But there is a price to be paid for over involvement in non-core tasks: Drop in real performance, lack of solid results and a sense of hollowness about the work.

Think about it: A great nurse is great not because she excels in administrative work but because she excels in her core task: taking care of patients. A great professor is great not because he excels in checking students' papers, but because he excels in his core task: teaching.

What are those tasks that will make you great in your current position? Focus on them!

>>CAREER TIP:Step back and ask yourself:

- What am I supposed to be doing in my current position?
- What am I really paid to do?
- Which are those activities that would enable me to produce solid results and give me a real sense of accomplishment?

At the intersection of the answers to the above questions lie your core tasks. List them down. Everything else that you engage in are your non-core tasks.

Now ask yourself one more question:

Am I focused on my core tasks or am I trapped in the non-core tasks most of the time?

The idea here is not to become rigid and say, "This is my core work. I will only do this and nothing else." It is to say, "I know I have to operate with a mix of core and non-core tasks, but I will consciously focus more on my core tasks and limit my involvement in non-core activities. One step further, I would expect other people do to the same."

The bottom line: When someone thinks about the position you hold or the work you do, what picture would spring up in that person's mind? Are you living up to it?

Atul Mathur

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***Copyright 2005 Atul Mathur***

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