SkipCohenUniversity
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us

the SCU Blog

Marketing Monday: Multitasking as an Art Form

8/25/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Multitasking isn't so much about being able to do different tasks at once, but understanding the balance in your priorities.
by Skip Cohen

One of the key traits of photographers we admire is their ability to multitask.  Recently I've read a number of articles that suggest people who stress their ability to multitask often lose site of quality related issues.  In an effort to do several things at once, they become masters of mediocrity and incredibly inefficient. Whereas if they stayed focused on one project/action at a time they'd be more efficient and consistent in their production values.

Personally, I don't agree. I've spent years working with a lot of amazing people.  There are some who simply have a unique ability to stay focused on multiple projects and priorities.

So, pick whatever side you want to be on, but I'm talking about many of the leaders in our industry who multitask and never drop the ball.  Maybe it's not so much multitasking but having multi-vision!

While it’s a definite trait of the photographers we admire the most, it’s also one of those traits that’s so universal to successful people in general. Somehow they seem to be able to be in two places at once.  They have so much going on in their lives, yet from our perspective they teach, write, photograph and create all with an effortless ease.  Each of you have photographers and business people in your own community who might not be well known, but have these traits. Here are a couple of great examples.

We all try and multitask, but nobody does it better than good buddy, Kevin Kubota. He does it so well that many new photographers don’t know he’s one of the best photographers in our industry. They think he’s a software developer creating products for Kubota Image Tools. The reality is that he’s a teacher, a wedding photographer, a commercial photographer, an author, a lecturer, a great dad, husband and friend.

What’s the secret ingredient? You’ll have to ask Kevin, but I think it’s just plain passion for being on the planet. And there’s another ingredient/trait of great photographers.

And another multitasker is family photographer, Michele Celentano. She's a photographer, educator, author, fitness instructor, mom, wife and also a great friend. Having spent a lot of time with her and her family recently, one of her secrets is setting priorities. She maintains a balance between all the hats she wears making sure that her personal priorities for her own health and family are never in second place.

The challenge in multitasking is learning to prioritize and move from project to project, never losing sight of the importance of completion. Everyone has a certain bandwidth and sooner or later you simply run out of space in your head, as well as your heart to tackle one more thing. So a really good multitasker puts one project on the back-burner, ties up some lose ends on another, takes it to completion and then can come back to the original priority.

This isn’t a personality trait or skill by itself. It ties together with time management, learning to delegate, judgment, awareness and again passion…all traits and skills that will continue to come up in posts down the road.

Business and motivational writer Mitch Thrower wrote, “Spend time to understand your own multitasking capacity, and your projects and goals.”

The key word here is “capacity” – People who are good at multitasking recognize when they’re out of bandwidth.

Illustration Credit: © Creativa - Fotolia.com
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Your walk is just a click away
    Picture
    Picture

      Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter

    Our Partners

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    "Why?"

    Check out "Why?" one of the most popular features on the SCU Blog. It's a very simple concept - one image, one artist and one short sound bite. Each artist shares what makes the image one of their most favorite. We're over 130 artists featured since the project started. Click on the link above and you can scroll through all of the episodes to date.

    Categories

    All
    Alzheimer's
    Beyond Technique
    Business
    Business Breakthroughs
    Clean Up Series
    Customer Service
    EDU10
    Excire
    F64 Lunch Bunch
    Faculty
    Fast Food Friday
    Guest Post
    Humor And Sarcasm
    Hump Day
    In The News
    Lessons Learned
    Lighting
    Luminar
    Lumix
    Marketing
    Mark's Corner
    Mind Your Own Business
    Miscellaneous
    Motivational
    One Step At A Time
    Photodex
    PhotoShelter
    PhotoTexting
    Platypod
    Podcasts
    Profoto
    Sales
    Search
    Skylum
    Social Media
    Sunday Morning Reflections
    Tamron
    Tamron Recipes
    Technique
    Throwback Thursday
    Wedding Photography
    Westcott
    Why?

Categories​

Business
Marketing
Technique
Sales
Fast Food Fridays
​

Podcasts

Tamron Recipes 
Beyond Technique
Why?
Mind Your Own Business
Pro Photographer Journey

 Partners

Tamron
Photofocus

​Lumix

Marathon Press
​Platypod
©  2019 Skip Cohen University
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us