Multitasker who can juggle many balls at the same time. Wow But Impossible.

03 February 22

2m read

Our brains are not wired to do more than one activity (that requires concentration) at a time. “When we think we are multitasking, most often we aren’t doing two things at once, but instead, we’re doing individual actions in rapid succession, or task-switching,” explains Cynthia Kubu, a neuropsychologist at Cleveland Clinic.

This type of juggling of activities divides our attention and makes us less efficient and ‘although it purports to increase efficiency, in most cases, multitasking merely increases busyness while eroding productivity’ according to Forbes magazine.

In some professions multitasking would not only be unproductive but could also be downright dangerous. As Dr Kubu explains, “People assume that a surgeon’s skill is primarily in the precision and steadiness of his or her hands. While there’s some truth to that, the true gift of a surgeon is the ability to single-mindedly focus on one person and complete a series of tasks over the course of many hours.”

When we switch between tasks, we are required to transition from one to the next but ‘our attention doesn’t immediately follow – a residue of our attention remains stuck thinking about the original task’ and that lost fraction of time builds up over the course of the day; end result is a lot of lost time each day especially if you also throw-in the times when you quickly glance at snapchat or Instagram on top of everything else.

Not only is multitasking bad for business (and indeed academics), since ‘multitasking causes employees to pay partial attention to multiple items simultaneously’, but it also stresses us out, results in more errors, can lead to burnout and studies have shown it can even reduce IQ by as much as 15 points (similar to those who had stayed up all night in the experiment).

In his book, The Myth of Multitasking, Dave Crenshaw agrees, ‘Because our brains aren’t designed to focus on more than one active task at a time, we’re instead rapidly switching between tasks. This is always unproductive and causes us to pay switching costs’. In fact, research has shown that productivity can drop by as much as 40% as a result.

The antithesis to this is a what is referred to as the ‘flow state’ - something we often hear from creatives and professional sportsmen. Coined by Hungarian psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, ‘flow’ refers to being fully engaged with what you’re doing, undistracted by anything else that potentially could grab your attention.

Csikszentmihalyi noticed a concentration ‘flow’ when he studied artists, painters and musicians. He and his team of researchers concluded that we can all experience ‘flow’ when we fully engage with what we are doing. This type of ‘hyperfocus’ is also referred to as ‘being in the zone’ and it not only improves productivity but is also linked to increased motivation and satisfaction.

If you want to save time, feel less stressed and have a sharper mind, start giving your tasks your full, undivided attention and sequencing them rather than switching between them.

Sure, multitasking makes us look and feel busy and important, but it’s a myth and counterproductive on the whole. Instead, take frequent breaks, do one task at a time and you will start getting through those to-do lists much more efficiently.