You might think, because this is a course on productivity hacking, I am going to teach you how to do 10 things at once to speed things up. In fact, this is not true at all. While the next chapter will deal with how to use multitasking effectively and responsibly, I want to impress upon you that 80% of multitasking is in fact destructive to your productivity and work quality.
You can probably make assumptions about the effects of multitasking on focus, and you likely know that dividing your attention across three tasks has a high cost in terms of efficiency and work output. No surprises there. But did you know that when switching between micro-tasks, there is a distinct period of confusion before you can re-enter into the focused state? We are going to talk about this more in an upcoming chapter about focus and flow, but for now, I want to give you an example you have probably experienced.
Imagine you are filling out a work-related form, and you are fully focused. You are "in the zone" – until someone calls you on the phone. This has surely happened to you, and so you have experienced the feeling of settling back down after the phone call and trying to figure out where you were on the form.
Picking up where you left off may seem like only a few seconds, but if you are performing some kind of high-functioning task, in fact "picking up" takes much longer. In fact, it is been suggested that "picking back up" can take as much as 15 minutes to get back into the
"zone." This is to say that while our brains are very sophisticated at maintaining up to 9 of different threads of thoughts or focus at once, the brain is far less efficient at doing so than we would like to believe.
While you may pride yourself on being able to listen to a podcast, answer chat messages from customers, read your emails, and chit chat with your coworker across the room, the reality is each and every
"micro" shift is costing you productivity. The "cost"
may mean re-reading the chat message from a minute ago, asking your coworker to repeat something they said, or to rewind the podcast a little bit. Those little
"hiccups" add up and cost you time! Not to mention, the quality of your work is not nearly as good.
Instead, I would encourage you to shut off all distractions, whenever possible. Try to do one thing at a time, and only one thing. If your coworkers want to chat, put the emails on hold. If you are answering emails, set yourself a deadline (like we discussed earlier), and put on headphones with some non-distracting music to make it clear to other people present that you are focusing. Then, set your phone to
"do not disturb," and get the emails done. For activities requiring your mental acuity, multitasking is about the worst thing you can do for productivity.
Give this a try – stay focused on one task and see how much more effective you are. You might find staying focused is really hard for you (especially if your brain has learned to love jumping around). I found this to be true when I started meditating.
By the way, meditation is a really great practice to get into, because meditation helps us train our brains to focus on one thing at a time and helps us understand how impossible maintaining singular focus has become in our culture of constant multi-sensory overload. If you decide to embark on a journey of meditation
(which I strongly recommend), you might be shocked and disappointed to see you can only focus on something as simple as your breath for 1 or 2 seconds before getting distracted. The beauty of meditation is that it simultaneously teaches you to improve your focus while training you to accept the "monkey mind"
and avoid aggravation.
In fact, a great majority of the world's most productive and successful people in the arts, business, government, and more are all avid practitioners of meditation, from Oprah to Tony Robbins to Bill Clinton and even Paul McCartney. There are literally thousands of top-performers who claim a huge part of their success is owed to the focus they gained from meditation. Therefore, I strongly recommend you check out some of the links I have provided.
Meditation is a surprisingly difficult thing to do, and I know, most of you will say "I am just not someone who can meditate," but trust me, meditation is well, well worth the effort, if you are willing to tough out the learning curve!
In the next chapter, I am going to talk about how to properly stack activities, now that you understand why micro switching of tasks is counter-productive.
For Further Research:
Benefits of Meditation
http://jle.vi/meditation1
What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate http://jle.vi/meditation2
Media Multitaskers Pay a Mental Price – Stanford Research
http://jle.vi/multitask1
The Science Behind MultiTasking – From an MIT Researcher
http://jle.vi/multitask3
Why the Human Brain Can’t MultiTask – TEDx http://jle.vi/multitask4
The Illusion of MultiTasking – UCSD Center for Mindfulness
http://jle.vi/multitask5
How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking – Harvard Business Review
http://jle.vi/multitask6