Spring quickly gives away to summer in many parts of the country. Those wonderful June nights that you longed for last winter are now here. Will you savor them? Or, will you load up your plate with so many activities that the month passes in record time? Here's what I'm going to do after the workday is done: watch the NBA finals, swim a lot, hang out with some special few people, read a little, and that's pretty much it!

Here is sure fire way to make any day race by: attempt to do two or more things at one time. You are more likely, however, to do an unsatisfactory job on your work when you continuously multi-task.

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have found that if you perform as simple a task as tapping your foot, you activate the primary motor cortex in your brain. If your task is more involved, if it includes planning in order to tap your foot to a sequence such as one-two, one-two-three, one-two, one-two-three, then two secondary motor areas in the front portion of the brain are engaged. You are drawing upon more of your brain's functioning capacity.

Don't worry, your brain can handle it. The point is that when you engage in multi-tasking (i.e., attempting to watch TV while eating, or doodling while you talk on the telephone) your brain functioning changes to incorporate the extra activities. If you want to do the best at whatever you're doing, allow your brain to concentrate on one activity--focus on one thing at a time. It sounds simple enough, but this advice goes against the grain of a society telling you do many things at once in order to be more efficient. People double their activities in an effort to make things easier. Better to master the art of doing one thing at a time.

I sometimes do a little exercise when speaking at conventions and executive retreats. I ask audience members to take out their watches and do nothing but stare at them for a solid minute. No one can do it! In this society, we're fed a message that emphasizes the importance of motion and activity.

When you read, think, or reflect, you "don't look busy" enough. Has the following ever happened to you? Somebody walks by your desk and, horror of horrors, you're reading! Worse yet, you're reading the newspaper! Maybe the person looks at you a little funny, or perhaps you feel a bit guilty because you're not "in motion." Yet studies show that people in executive positions need to read two to four hours each day. So to be as productive as you need to be, you often act in ways that run counter to what society tells you is "productive activity."

You have to break out of the mind-set imposed by others. Sometimes the best way to be productive is to sit at your desk and do nothing--at least nothing that looks like anything to people walking by. Reading or looking out the window in contemplation could be the single most important and productive thing you do in a day. Too often, you probably throw your time away at tasks when what you really need to do is reflect on them first.

The single best way to cope with a number of different projects is to begin working on one thing until its completion, then go on to the next project, and then the next, until you are finished. Mentally switching from task to task is not as productive as staying on one job until completion.

For today, give yourself the benefit of working on one thing at a time. You may have to switch gears when the boss comes in, when that important phone call comes through, or if you receive a fax that has to be acted on right away. When you switch gears, switch them entirely. Give your complete and undivided attention to the pressing issue at hand. This is the most effective way to work, and you will be happiest.

If you notice yourself falling into patterns that resemble multi-tasking, try these solutions: * Take a 15 minute break once during the morning, and once in the afternoon. * Don't eat at your desk; get away so that you can recharge your battery. * Invest in equipment or technology that offers you a significant return, i.e., pays for itself within one year or less, or saves at least two hours a week of your time. * Hold regular meetings with your team to discuss how everyone can be more efficient--without multi-tasking. Focus on the big picture of what everyone is trying to accomplish. Often, new solutions to problems will emerge and activities that seem urgent can be viewed from a broader prospective. * Furnish your offices with plants, pictures, art, or decorations that inspire creativity.

"Men give me some credit for genius. All the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject at hand I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is instead the fruit of labor and thought." Alexander Hamilton