Why Multitasking Is Not Good For Productivity
In the past, multitasking was thought to be effective for productivity, but recent research indicates that heavy multitaskers can expect as much as a 40% drop in their productivity.
Unfortunately, our brains aren’t designed to do several tasks at once. Even if you feel like you’re being productive by juggling a few things, your brain is in effect jumping from one task to the other, and none of them is getting your full attention.
It’s this task-switching that takes a toll on your productivity, and the more complex the task, the higher the loss of time.
One of the more serious side-effects of heavy multitasking is the damage to your brain. A study of heavy multitaskers found that even when they weren’t multitasking, their cognitive processes were impaired. That means that for any tasks completed, regardless of complexity, there were perceptible time and error penalties.
Those monitored were also found to have lower brain density in the regions responsible for empathy and emotional control, less focus, and impairments to their learning and memory due to information overload.
The biggest impact of multitasking though is the mental toll. Heavy multitaskers generally experience higher levels of stress, poor decision-making, reduced creativity, and less than average work outcomes.
By constantly responding to distractions, we lose the ability to distinguish between important and unimportant interruptions. Our inboxes are the biggest instigator of these interruptions, with studies showing that employees spend about 28% of their workweek checking emails. Consider something like Slack if you have a large team and many back-and-forth emails as it’s a great platform to collaborate and gives you the control of when you’ll check for updates.
Unfortunately, we’re all so used to multitasking that it’s often tricky to realise when we’re unintentionally falling back into unproductive ways. Here are some suggestions for you to implement to stay on track:
Set your priorities first thing in the morning, and list the most important jobs first
Set a timer for 20-minutes and commit to focusing on only one task during that period.
Turn off all distractions; silence your phone, shut down your email, turn off any notifications, and where possible, close your office door.
Don’t move onto the next task until the one you’re working on is completed or at a satisfactory level.
Take breaks between sessions to reboot your brain and retain information.
You’ll soon start to notice that not only are your productivity levels increasing but that you’re enjoying ticking tasks off your list.
At the end of the day, nobody can do two things at once. Next time you notice those old habits creeping back in, consider this - If you eliminated those multitasking switches by 80%, you could recover as much as 40 hours a month! When you’re at work, commit to being at work (no social media, surfing the web, or online shopping), concentrate on one task at a time, and complete it fully before moving on – and you’ll soon start to see the results of serial mono-tasking on your productivity levels.