The Case for Doing One Thing at a Time

By Claudia Wallis, Sonja Steptoe

Surely anyone with fingers in as many pies as Suze Orman--personal-finance guru, best-selling author, columnist, businesswoman and TV personality--must be a master multitasker, right?

Wrong, way wrong. "I, more than anybody I've ever met, do not believe in multitasking," says Orman, 54. "I think it's the absolute ruination of the perfection of a project."

Orman, who has earned millions dispensing financial advice on her weekly CNBC show, on PBS specials, in O, the Oprah Magazine and via her books and kits on money matters, prides herself on her ability to focus on one thing at a time and stick tightly to her agenda. "I came to this conclusion after watching the way racehorses win," she explains. "They come out of the gate with blinders on and go for the finish line." Orman does the same. "I don't care what my competition is doing. I don't care how their books are selling. All I care about is what I do, and I do absolutely nothing else while I am doing it."

Sure, Orman has the usual battery of electronic devices--in fact, she runs a paperless office but has strict rules for using her gadgets. "When I am writing, I don't answer phones. I don't care what else is going on," she says. She has a cell phone but never leaves it on. "You can't call me. I only call you. I think you have to stop thinking you are at everyone else's beck and call." Silence, she adds, is critical. "You cannot complete your thoughts with everything ringing."

Orman, who has neither a husband nor children to distract her, takes single- mindedness to an almost unimaginable extreme. "When I'm on a plane on the way to a speaking engagement, you cannot talk to me about another project. All I'm doing is thinking about that speech. That way, when I get there, everything is very clear." On a recent 14-day world tour, she says, she didn't pick up a single e-mail or voice message: "Then, bam, it was done, and now that I'm back, I have picked up with what I need to do."

The remarkable thing is that Orman is a one-woman show. She has no assistant, no permanent employees. "I'm the one who answers every one of my e-mails," she says. (Usually with a terse yes, no or "done.") When she hires people to work on a project, she insists they clear their schedules of other jobs: "I'm not saying they can't multitask, just not on my time," she explains. "The people who multitask, I think, do everything to mediocrity at best. While they are getting a lot done, they are getting it done in such an inefficient way that they usually have to do it again." Orman says she never misses a deadline or needs a do-over. "Once I've written an article, it is done."

Orman admits her unstinting focus isn't easy on friends. "They say, 'Oh, she's just being OCD again.'" But the finance queen makes no apologies: "It just works for me." And how.