In the business world, where time management is always a priority, multitasking skills are expected, especially in younger workers reared in multiple media environments (i.e., computers, iPods, iPhones, TV, video games, online social sites, texting and instant messaging).

Beginning in 2005, however, studies began to show that distractions negatively affected productivity and efficiency. A study funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the University of London’s Institute of Psychiatry found that “workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.”

A second study found that it took an average of 25 minutes for workers to recover from interruptions (phone calls, emails) and return to their original tasks.

On expert estimates that extreme multitasking and information overload cost the U.S. economy $650 billion a year in lost productivity.

The brain doesn’t handle more than one problem well. While we can certainly walk and chew gum at the same time, we cannot pay attention to multiple challenges. Instead, the brain must switch tasks, using up time and energy. And when task-switching is poorly executed, we waste time and make mistakes.

All the research in the world won’t discourage us from juggling more than one ball. So, if we’re going to multitask, how can we do it effectively?

This article gives 10 tips for getting more done.

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The complete 1,000 word article includes these important concepts:

• The Art of Paying Attention
• Smart Multitasking
• 10 Tips for Getting More Done

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Debunking Multitasking Myths:
10 Tips for Getting More Done

Before making an important decision, prudent managers evaluate the situations confronting them — and often fall into one of the eight traps of faulty thinking.

Some managers are too optimistic and overconfident: They overestimate success and underestimate the range of potential outcomes. On the flipside, other managers are cautious to a fault: They take costly steps to defend against unlikely outcomes.

These are just two of the well-documented psychological traps that ensnare most managers at some point in their careers. Other pitfalls that distort our reasoning abilities and cater to our biases are identified:

• We have a tendency to stick with the status quo.
• We only look for evidence that confirms our preferences.
• We are likely to throw good money after bad to defend our position and avoid admitting a mistake.

The way a problem is framed can influence how you develop solutions. To avoid this trap, you need to reframe the question in various ways to see how your thinking may change based on each version.

We can’t always avoid the distortions ingrained in the way our minds work, but we can build in tests to make our decision-making processes more reliable, thus improving the quality of the choices we make.

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This is a brief synopsis of a 2000 word article suitable for consultants’ newsletters for executives and leaders in organizations. It is available for purchase with full reprint rights, which means you may put your name on it and use it in your newsletters, blogs or other marketing materials. You may also modify it and add your personal experiences.

There are two versions of this article: 2000 words and 1000 words (approximate word counts). The full article covers the following sub-topics:

The Brain Science of Decisions
The 8 Traps:
The Anchoring Trap
The Status-Quo Trap
The Sunk-Cost Trap
The Confirming-Evidence Trap
The Framing Trap
The Estimating and Forecasting Traps:
The Overconfidence Trap
The Prudence Trap
The “Recallability” Trap
There Are No “No-Brainers”

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b. Text, 1000 word article with full reprint rights, $57, click here

All word lengths are approximate.