I've spent the last seven years becoming very good at multitasking, as I'm sure all assistants have. Being able to cope with and process many tasks, concepts and requests all at the same time whilst smiling and making someone a cup of coffee seems to be an essential skill.

Recently my constant multitasking has started to bug me, is it really necessary to read and respond to an email while talking to someone about their weekend, and answering the phone to boot?

There's been a lot written about 'uni-tasking' or mindfullness which focuses on the idea that by only completing one task at a time and focusing your full attention on it you'll get more done, feel less stressed and produce better outcomes. This idea really appeals to me, to be able to sit and focus on one task at a time, devoting your full attention to it and creating great results, but is it really possible/practical in an assistant's role?

Sadly, for the most part I think the answer is no. In my view the assistants job is to make their manager/s life easier, and that generally involves taking tasks off their already full plate and completing them efficiently, effectively and usually concurrently. Unitasking can be impractical - it can hold up other parts of your business while they wait for you to finish or it can make other staff waste time trying to do something you could do ten times faster (have you ever watched a CEO try to fix a paper jam?).

Here are some articles on multi-tasking and uni-tasking for your reference:

• http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/03/your_brain_on_m.html
• http://blogs.hbr.org/silverman/2010/06/in-defense-of-multitasking.html
• http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking

I guess the ideal situation is a combination of unitasking and multitasking depending on the situation and workload - what do you think? Are you able to unitask at work or are you too busy juggling twenty tasks?