Multitasking — A Myth or Reality? Let’s break it down
Stop… and have a look around yourself. You would surely find multiple tabs open in your system, and a song or some work going on in your background while you are reading this article. In short, you are multitasking. You must be thinking “What’s the big deal in it? Multitasking is something that everyone does and I am pretty good at Multitasking.”
But that’s where the problem lies — you think Multitasking is the need of the hour and you are better at multitasking than others. But this is all myth, there is no such thing called multitasking. The so-called Multitasking you do is nothing but an act of fooling yourself at the expense of your mental resources. We sacrifice the power of our full focus and dedication when we are multitasking.
Imagine you are doing a really important task like replying to your boss’ email, planning a long-awaited date, or discussing a business idea with your clients, and somebody bumps into your room to play the lights on-off game with you. Won’t you get irritated? Of Course, you will feel irritated and exactly this same irritation is felt by your brain when you are multitasking.
Multitasking is actually switching our attention from one task to another and then back to the previous task at the expense of our mental energy and efficiency. Whenever you switch a task, you lose your precious attention and by the time you get deeply involved in the other task, you again switch the task. This degrades the quality and efficiency of our work.
Multiple studies have confirmed that human minds are wired to focus on only one thing at a time. That’s why it is always better to monotask i.e, focus on one thing at a time. A Stanford Study by Professor Clifford Nass showed that multitaskers are worse performers as they struggle to filter out irrelevant information from relevant ones. As per the study by psychologist Susan WeInschenk, the true cost of multitasking could be losing 40% of your productivity.
“Every single time we switch there is a cost. It’s draining. It’s taking longer to do the same thing.”
-Dr. Sahar Yousaf, a cognitive neuroscientist.
Now we know how disastrous Multitasking could be. But is it so easy to give up Multitasking and focus on one thing at a time? Surely not. Multitasking has become our innate quality, we unknowingly start replying to our emails while waiting for the meeting to begin, playing on our phones while sitting on the train, etc. So here are some tips that can help you to stop multitasking:
#1 Find a quiet and comfortable workspace
Have you ever noticed why it is always asked to maintain silence in the library? It’s because they want to maintain a silent and calm environment in the library so as to enable the readers to read with a calm and focused mind. A quiet and comfortable workspace helps you to provide the required amount of attention to your work. So please find a calm, quiet, disturbance-free corner for your work, and don’t forget to keep your notifications off.
#2 Schedule Time blocks for Important tasks
Make a list of your tasks. You might feel that all your tasks are equally important but that’s how you fall into the trap of “Multitasking”, so be careful and rank your tasks based on your priorities. Now allot a time block to each of your tasks and completely focus on just one task during that scheduled time.
#3 Take short breaks
Being productive and working attentively does not mean exhausting yourself with continuous work. Take short breaks after the completion of each task or you can use Pomodoro Technique. In the Pomodoro technique, you work in fixed timelocks of 25 minutes then take a 5 min break. After 4 or 5 rounds of Pomodoro, you take a longer break of 20 minutes. This technique helps you to work attentively without getting drained.
#4 Activate your DND mode
Oops!! Humans don’t have the ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature in them like mobile phones. But you can mentally create a DND-type condition where you do not allow your thoughts to disturb you. It is impossible to control the flow of thoughts in the brain but you can control yourself from paying attention to these thoughts while working. And in case, you are overwhelmed with thoughts, take some deep breaths and redirect your attention to work. Jot down your thoughts on paper if they are bothering you too much.
#5 Deal with Urgent issues first
If you have an important call or mail to reply to, please do it before starting your work otherwise it will keep bothering you while you are working. Any urgent issue must be dealt with first, to avoid any rush or guilt later.
Switching from the habit of Multitasking to Single-tasking is surely going to be a tough nut to crack but you have to do it for better productivity and results in life. Monotasking would become a little easier if you start meditating because focusing on one thing is what one learns in meditation.