The Art of Multitasking

"Do more with less." It's the unforgiving mantra of business in a slow-growth, high-anxiety economy. Deliver more sales with fewer salespeople. Manufacture more products using fewer factories. And, perhaps most universally, make more decisions, launch more innovations -- get more stuff done -- with fewer people in the executive ranks and fewer resources to support the hardy (read: overworked) souls who remain.

How do you manage to stay sane when you're insanely busy? You become very good at multitasking. Stephen Carter, CEO of Cingular Wireless, spends half of his time on the road and handles 200 emails a day. Yet he exudes a sense of calm and control, mainly because he has strict rules for how he operates. Anne Altman, a managing director at IBM, is responsible for the company's sales to its biggest customer: the U.S. government. Her secret weapon for multitasking? Instant messaging, which she believes is the next great workplace productivity tool.

What follows is a survival guide for executives who are expected to meet impossible expectations. Carter, Altman, and other remarkably effective business leaders offer strategies and tactics for mastering the art of multitasking. Spend some time exploring their advice -- but not too much time. Isn't there something else you should be doing?

GADGET MASTER
Stephen Carter, CEO, Cingular Wireless
"If you don't learn everything about how your technology works, you'll never be able to make your technology work for you," declares Stephen Carter. As if on cue, a pager's jarring ring interrupts him. One of his advisers jumps in embarrassment. Fumbling through her briefcase, she grabs the device and mutters an apology. "I just got this yesterday, and I'm still figuring it out," she says.

Carter raises an eyebrow. The woman hits a button and the pager goes silent. Carter resumes listing his rules of the road for wireless etiquette. "You make a contract when you make an appointment with someone," he says. "I'd never let technology distractions abuse that time." Oops. The pager bleats again. Carter is not amused. "I always turn my cell phone and pager off during meetings," he says, sending a pointed glance his adviser's way. This time, she gets the message and shuts down the gizmo.

Carter is a gadget enthusiast. A British transplant, he maintains a clipped accent despite years of living in Texas as president of SBC Communications' wireless division and, now, in Atlanta as the first CEO of Cingular, the joint venture between SBC and BellSouth. Today, he wears a slick red Nokia 8290 on his belt and carries a BlackBerry in his pocket. When traveling, he carries several cell phones, testing new models as they arrive from the many manufacturers that Cingular works with. He treats the phones almost like fashion accessories: There's the workhorse Nokia handset that he uses between meetings, and, at day's end, there's a silver Motorola V70 for a fancier evening look. In the office, Carter uses an ultrathin Compaq EVO N200 laptop, but he dislikes being tethered to a desk. Going wireless isn't just the mission of the company he leads -- it's the central pillar of Carter's management style. Wherever he goes, his work goes with him.

As head of a $14 billion company that serves more than 22 million voice-and-data users in the United States, Carter spends half of his time on the road and handles some 200 emails a day. He keeps things sane by making his BlackBerry the hub for much of his communication. He employs a simple but effective strategy for managing the daily deluge of email that he receives: Whenever possible, he deals with each incoming message in real time. Even if he only has 10 minutes between meetings, he'll use that downtime to fire off replies and forward critical messages.

For Carter, going wireless means that he can also be paperless. His spacious office features a freestanding desk with no drawers or filing cabinets underneath it; his shelves are conspicuously free of in- and outboxes and folders. The windowsills are covered with family photos and Cingular tchotchkes, including a large aluminum canister labeled "Whoop Ass." But there isn't a single sheet of paper in evidence.

"If I let paper sit, it tends to grow," he says. "When I get a memo, I try to deal with it immediately, and then I send it out the door." His assistant files away critical paper reports; Carter prefers to work with electronic files and storage systems. When asked whether he keeps anything in the drawers beneath the wall-mounted shelves, Carter answers, "Sure, I've got loads of things in there -- cool phones, extra shirts -- but almost no files at all."