"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.