One of the group projects that I've been working on for the past few weeks is almost finally over. Pictured to the left is one of the preliminary sketches for a water powered generator that would create enough voltage to power a cellphone. The requirement was that it must produce at least 1.8 volts of electricity. A little information was provided for us pertaining to turbines and generator power, but overall we were required to make all the proper design calculations and complete a WORKING prototype as the final product.
This was the first design project that I have done from start to finish (performing design calculations, designing a system, and building a prototype) so I was very excited to take on the challenge at first. Around the same time of this project being assigned I also received two other projects from different professors. My hopes were that I would be able to put as much work as needed into this project in order to design the best system possible, but soon found myself juggling my time between all three projects and just trying to make them all work.
The only downfall of all these projects at one time is that I did not have enough time to solely focus on one individual project, and always found myself running from group to group and switching gears for different projects. I'm a strong believer that multi-tasking simply does not work and that it should be avoided whenever possible. I believe that focusing all your efforts on one task yields 10 times better results than spreading yourself thin over a number of different tasks. Professors try to say that multi-tasking is a standard in the industry and that people usually work on many projects at one time. I beg to differ. I'm sure their are companies who believe in multi-tasking, and that may work well for some. I like to focus on the companies who steer clear of multi-tasking to achieve great success.
Google is a great example of a company that's success has been achieved solely by small teams that focus on one individual project. By doing so they have not only become a multi-billion dollar company, but they have become a leader in software development in only a few short years. They Have become so large that they can virtually give away free software and still make billions of dollars each and every day! Can anyone come close to Google? If you don't believe in multi-tasking you might have a shot..... Apple Inc Apple has become a leader in the hardware and software industry in the past couple of years. It seemed like they had fallen off the map about 5 years ago but have recently taken the media marketplace by storm. It started with their introduction of the computer media interface iTunes, followed by the first hand held MP3 player(Touch comes to iPod. Introducing iPod touch. 8GB and 16GB models from $299. Free Shipping.), which were and still are a huge hit by the way, then their innovative new computer designs, not only desktop but also laptop(Meet the New, Faster MacBook Pro at Apple Store Canada), and finally......their latest attempt to take over the cellphone industry with the iPhone.
So how did Apple manage to do it? They employ teams of designers, engineers, software specialists, artists, and more and allow them to focus on one small part of a larger design. By doing this they achieve greatness by getting every single aspect of each of their products almost perfect. They have enough teams to focus on every detail of a design and never spread themselves to thin to produce anything less than perfection. Focusing all their efforts on one thing at a time has led them to be a leader in the industry, exploding past their opponent which is ummmmm.....oh, almost forgot....Microsoft.
These two companies are only two of the greatest examples that I could think of where steering clear of multi-tasking has led to leading their specific industries and technological greatness. If you can find a company that has huge success due to multi-tasking then by all means comment about them here, and if multi-tasking works for you then congratulations on being the ladder. I like to take advice and follow the footsteps of the people who have achieved remarkable things, and in my book, multi-tasking is NOT the way to go.
Because of this I will strive for greatness from SMB College Life by not multi-tasking in order to provide the best college information network that I possibly can to you. Excellence does not emerge overnight; just look at Apple or Google's timeline. Look for much more to come at www.SMBCollegeLife.com
