Daily Inspiration #66
Og Mandino
One at a Time

Augustine "Og" Mandino II (December 12, 1923 – September 3, 1996) was an American author. He wrote the bestselling book The Greatest Salesman in the World. His books have sold over 50 million copies and have been translated into over twenty-five different languages. He was the president of Success Unlimited magazine until 1976 and is an inductee of the National Speakers Association's Hall of Fame.
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Og Mandino, I did a post on him back on Day 8.

I have another great quote from him today.

“It is those who concentrate on but one thing at at time who advance in this world.”

Ever find yourself multitasking?

Ever notice that when you do small (sometimes big) things get lost in the shuffle?

It seems in today's society, with technology running rampant and life being so fast paced, that multitasking is a much more common thing than it used to be.

It seems like before all of this it may have been a little easier to focus on a single thing at a time.

Now when I mention multitasking, I am not talking about chewing gum and walking at the same time.

What about listening to something very important and reading or typing at the same time?

I'm sure many of us have been there.

You'll notice that entire paragraphs of what you're listening to are missing from your memory and each time you focus a little while on listening you have to remind yourself where you are when you start typing again.

Even those of us that really think we are great at it are missing many pieces as we go along.

Often, depending what job we have, it may not affect our efficiently at work.

Or at least, we've done enough to keep the boss happy.

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I've covered focus a little in a previous post so some of this may be reiteration, but I'd like to share with you why what Og says here is so true.

You understand synergy, right?

Well, it is defined as:
-the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

The mind is capable of focusing on up to 7 things at one time before you go into trance. (more on that another time)

This can elude you into believing you are getting further along through doing multiple things at once.

However, mathematically and energetically speaking, this is not so.

You see, the fewer things you focus on at once the greater power you are giving to each one.

This concept works as truly when you are building a team as it does when it is just you.

Let's look at building a team.

Let's also assume that each person on our team was fully capable of doing all jobs of the other team members.

So if there are 4 members of a team, without the team each member will have a power and ability of lets say 1.

On their own they might be able to finish a project, and likely can.

However, when you bring them together as a team, is the power of the team now 4?

Absolutely not.

The power of the team is exponentially larger than the sum of it's parts.

That exact equation is a bit elusive as there are so many factors to consider, suffice it to say that they get much more done together than they would individually (provided they are all focused on the task).

The same is true for the mind and and individuals abilities.

If you have 4 things you need to accomplish and try to do them all at once each thing is like the individual person.

Each thing you are trying to accomplish would only have the power of one (and perhaps less as the mind gets tangled overlapping them all).

However, when we focus on each one alone, by itself, we are now giving that one thing all of our focus and what we can accomplish with it is far greater than what we would get done trying to multitask all of them together.

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I'm not the type to work for another person or group myself, never really liked it.

However the times I have, the boss was always very pleased with my efficiency because I rarely multi-tasked, though it may have seemed like I did to them.

I used a simple trick.

When a new assignment came in while I was working on one already, I would stop, focus on the details of that assignment, make a note and stick it to that assignment, then set it aside and go back to the one I was working on.

Times where the new assignment needed to take precedence, I would do the same for the one I was currently working on.

I would make a note of where I was and what to do next, set it aside, and begin the new assignment.

I made sure to put my assignments in an order that made sense for what needed done first.

Sometimes that order will change throughout the day, so when picking the next one I would always double check that a different one was not more important to start than the one I thought earlier would come first.

This may sound complicated when reading it but was quite efficient in a real workday as it allowed me to put my full focus on each assignment.

Ok, so the short version of what I'm saying here is no matter how many things you have to do, or think you have to do, focus on them one at a time.

This will drastically raise the power and efficiency of getting each one done.

You will not only get each thing done faster, you will also do it better!

Remember,

“It is those who concentrate on but one thing at at time who advance in this world.”

Thanks for reading,
Michael David
@michaeldavid

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