One career building skill you hear a lot about these days is the ability to multi-task. But if you can’t do that do you think you have a chance at finding success in life?

Multi-tasking is the skill of performing multiple chores, all at the same time. All the “experts” tell you that you’ll never get ahead in the corporate world if you’re not a good multi-tasker.

So one of your very first self-education courses must be all about how to multi-task. And you need to practice the skill until it becomes a habit – right?

Let’s have a look at what happens during a multi-tasking activity, and see how valuable the skill is to your future.

When you work on more than one project at a time your attention must spread out over every one of those projects. You can’t focus on a specific project because each one screams at your conscious mind, “Do this now! Work on me, leave that other job alone!”

How do you get anything done when you have different projects all yelling at you to spend time on only them right now? And if you do manage to work those jobs all the way to completion, how much quality effort can you put into any one of them?

Splitting your time up between multiple tasks (even only two) keeps you distracted from any decent level of productivity.

If you truly want to excel in your work, learn how to focus on one project at a time. Do only one thing. Do it for a specified period. And do that one thing with quality. Give it your undivided attention during the time slot you schedule it for.

You need to incorporate your time management skills to bring your working life to its highest level of productivity. You must give each task you have on your schedule for today time by itself.

For each job schedule thirty minutes to one hour of activity. Work on that job for that time, and then take a little break. Let your mind transition from that project to the next for a few minutes. That way the project you just worked on won’t interfere with the project you’re starting.

Your ability to focus is what puts quality in your work. If you don’t focus on one thing at a time, you make mistakes. That forces you to backtrack to fix errors. Backtracking eats up your time, and pulls it away from the other tasks that await your attention. You get less done on any one project. Keep that up, and you fail to complete your work.

That’s not good for your future career, is it?

Your ability to finish any project on schedule, and with quality, depends on how much focused attention you direct toward that project.

Forget about learning how to multi-task. Teach yourself how to focus on one thing at a time.

That’s how you work toward success in life.