avatarSimon Theakston

Summary

Multitasking is counterproductive and leads to decreased efficiency, lower work quality, increased mistakes, and stifled creativity, making focused single-tasking a superior approach for productivity.

Abstract

The article argues that society's glorification of multitasking is misguided, as it significantly hampers productivity. It highlights the cost of switching focus between tasks, which can lead to a 23-minute recovery period for full concentration, resulting in wasted time and reduced work quality. The author emphasizes that multitasking increases the likelihood of errors and diminishes creativity. Moreover, it impairs the brain's ability to receive, process, and store information effectively. The recommended alternative is to prioritize tasks and tackle them one at a time, using techniques like the Pomodoro Technique, which involves focused work sessions followed by short breaks. This method ensures better work quality, fewer mistakes, and enhanced creativity and innovation.

Opinions

  • Multitasking is detrimental to productivity due to the high cost of task-switching, which includes lost time and decreased work quality.
  • Performing multiple tasks simultaneously leads to a higher chance of making mistakes and a decrease in the quality of work.
  • The human brain is not designed for multitasking, and trying to do so can result in impaired cognitive functions, including memory and information processing.
  • Focusing on a single task at a time allows for higher quality work, fewer errors, and more creative solutions.
  • The Pomodoro Technique is suggested as an effective method for maintaining focus and productivity while preventing mental fatigue.
  • Prioritizing tasks is crucial to ensure that the most important work is completed efficiently and effectively.
  • The article encourages readers to engage with the content by clapping, following the author, or continuing the conversation on social media platforms.

Multi-tasking Is Destroying Your Productivity. Here’s Why (and how to get back on track!)

To try to do everything is to ensure you’ll achieve nothing. (Ryan Holiday, Discipline is Destiny)

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

As a society, we seem to have developed a belief that we’re at our best when we’re ‘busy’ and to be ‘busy’ we need to be doing multiple things.

We’re just not trying our best unless we’re juggling more than one task and trying to finish a whole load of things at once.

Well, this article is designed to put a pin in that theory and suggest quite the opposite: nothing ensures that we stunt our productivity more than multitasking.

To get our tasks done quickly and efficiently, we should instead be focusing on them one at a time. Here’s why:

1. The cost of switching focus

Studies estimate that when we switch our focus from one task to another, it takes us around 23 minutes to be able to fully concentrate on the new work that we’ve just given ourselves.

I try to limit myself to just five tasks a day that I commit to completing. Switching between those tasks when they’re not finished would cost me over an hour of focus time every day.

The alternative, if I still want to log off at a reasonable time and still have space in the day for a walk (which I do!) means that I’d have to half-arse the tasks I’ve got and complete them without being fully focused.

So the cost of switching between multiple tasks can be broken down into:

  • The amount of time that gets wasted during an average day
  • The reduction in quality of your work (not great whatever that work is, but especially poor if you’re a one-man band working directly with a client)
  • The mental fatigue of continually switching off from one objective and switching on to another one.

2. Lower quality of work = higher chance of mistakes

Let’s dig a bit deeper into the idea that multi-tasking means a lower quality to your work.

In the point above, we suggested that if I didn’t want to waste my time trying to do multiple things, then the only other option open to me is to do my work at a lower level than I would if I was fully concentrating.

That alone is arguably enough to show the value of focusing on one project at a time.

However, throw into the mix the fact that our brains are not wired to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, and, not only do we have a decrease in the quality of our work, but the chances of us making mistakes increase.

These mistakes either go unchecked (which decreases the quality of our work further) or, even worse, get picked up by someone else and returned to us.

3. Lack of creativity

When we’re not working at our most focused we are, unsurprisingly, not giving everything we have to the job at hand.

As such, we’re not at our creative best. This doesn’t just apply to ‘creative’ tasks such as writing or designing. A lack of creativity can also translate to not being able to think of unique and innovative ideas no matter what job we’re carrying out.

4. Impaired brain function

Another byproduct of not fully concentrating on one task is that our brain is expecting to move on to something else shortly. As such, we have problems:

  • Receiving information (e.g. reading briefs and instructions)
  • Processing information (applying those instructions to a wider objective)
  • Storing information (memory recall and long-term retention of the details of our work are impaired when compared to directing out full concentration on a single task until it is completed)

So what’s the alternative?

As I’ve hinted at above, the solution to multi-tasking is to focus on a single task until it is complete.

Key to this idea though, is prioritizing what is important and identifying those tasks that are just getting in the way of what you’re trying to do. I wrote in more detail about how I do that here.

Once tasks have been prioritized, the chances are that some of them are going to take a while to complete. Things like white papers, a pitch, or some long-form writing are not going to be completed in just a few minutes.

In that case, I’d suggest the Pomodoro Technique, which is easy to implement and gives your brain sufficient breathing space to perform your work:

  • Turn off all distractions and notifications
  • Set a timer for 25 minutes
  • Work solidly on your chosen task until the timer goes off
  • Take a five-minute break and switch off from your work totally. Feed the cat, get some coffee, and check Facebook. Do whatever you want — just don’t be tempted to check emails or something else work-related.
  • If your initial project still isn’t finished, run another 25-minute session as described above.
  • If it is finished, move on to your next task.

If you find yourself running multiple Pomodoros (the name for each 25 focus session) then give yourself a half-hour break after the fourth session to ensure that your brain doesn’t become fatigued.

Conclusion

Don’t fall into the trap of believing that you have a fixed amount of time to complete everything on your to-do list. To quote Oliver Burkeman in Four Thousand Weeks:

The trouble with attempting to master your time … is that time ends up mastering you

Instead, prioritize what’s most important to you and focus on those tasks individually until they are completed. Jumping between them will:

  • Leave you feeling more tired due to switching costs
  • Decrease the quality of your work
  • Increase the mistakes you make
  • Negatively impact the creativity and innovation that can make our work stand out from the rest.

One last thing

If you found the article above useful, then there are three things you can do to support my writing:

  1. Hit those clapping hands so that other people with your interests will become aware of it. Hopefully, they’ll find it useful too
  2. Follow me here on Medium so that you become the first to know when similar content is posted
  3. Carry on the conversation. Either leave me a message here or get in touch on Twitter/X or Mastodon. I promise I’ll get back to you!
Productivity
Tasks
Business
High Performance
Process Improvement
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