How much can one person accomplish and manage to do everything well? Multi-tasking can, in a literal sense, be considered a misnomer in that we can technically only process one thought at a given time. Accordingly, those that believe they can simultaneously perform a number of tasks with equal efficiency are basically deceiving themselves.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.

– Mark Twain

I learned a long time ago that I must budget my time wisely, prioritize my lists and not take on too much on at once. Full disclosure–learning did not come naturally to me so making sure I was disciplined and structured was something I needed to pay close attention to since I started school.

Recently I found myself a little more “over-extended” with my workload than usual. I thought for sure that I could manage and balance things well, but quickly saw things starting to “slip”. I continued to utilize my online calendar and reminders on my phone, but even my support rituals were not helping me to manage all that I agreed to undertake. Granted, this is me and I’m sure many of you can handle perhaps more than I am able to effectively. But in reality, I suspect that some tasks have to suffer for others that juggle too much as well. My guess is that they don’t let things get to them as much as I do, so they just take things on until the bottom falls out.

I don’t like to be late, not even a minute. I get upset with myself when I find I have to ask a colleague for an extension on a deadline. And I really begin to lose sleep when I feel as though a presentation I worked on is not quite where I want it to be with little time to make adjustments.

For those of you that regularly juggle both your personal and professional lives and rarely (if ever) say no to a new project, do you feel that you cover everything successfully? Do you ever find yourselves scrambling to pull responsibilities, dead-lines, phone calls and appointments together without messing up or dropping the ball? I’m sure for some of you, there are friends and relatives that know that they

can count on you for always being late or forgetting a lunch or business date. What about events like birthdays and anniversaries? I admit that I’ve been known to get very creative with those who are habitually late.

Why is it that some people feel that if they excel in one area that they probably can “knock it out of the park” with many other things as well? How many areas of expertise can one person manage without failing, or worse, not being able to pay attention to such a degree that they might be compromising their reputation?

I say stick to what you know best and cultivate your knowledge. Become an authority on the subject in which you have invested most of your time and effort. Pay attention to the successes that have been achieved from your guidance and listen to those that you have influenced and made a difference for.

Don’t try to be everything to everybody. You will burn out way too fast.