Is Multitasking really the answer to productivity?
Multitasking seems like a great tool to get more done. But you have to ask yourself, are you really ever truly multitasking and won’t it just set you up for confusion?
“Think you’re good at multi-tasking? Feeling energized that you can whip through email messages while simultaneously listening to discussions on a conference call? You might not be as efficient as you think.
It turns out that 98% of the population doesn’t multi-task very well. Only about 2% are good at multi-tasking and these “supertaskers are true outliers.” For most of us, we’re not really multi-tasking – we’re actually shifting back and forth from one task to another, such as typing an email and then listening to that conference call conversation, then back to our email and so on.
The problem with trying to multi-task is all that shifting back and forth between tasks isn’t all that efficient because, each time we do it, it takes our brain some time to refocus. So while it might seem efficient on the surface, it isn’t – studies show that multi-tasking can reduce productivity by as much as 40%.” See Forbes
If you are typing an email, it is unlikely you will be able to concentrate on something else at the same time. If you are on the phone, can you really give your attention to who you are talking to if you are reading your Kindle book at the IThe truth is, we are not really good at multitasking.
Looking at even a higher level, if we try to be a jack-of-all-trades, we tend not to be good at any one thing. On the other hand, if you focus on just one skill and put every effort into being the best at that skill, you are going to do a pretty good job at that skill. It will only take a matter of time before you are expert at it.
As a working mother of 4 young children, I used to pride myself at being great at multitasking. The truth was that my world was falling apart around me. I didn’t see myself as a good wife, a great mum or a good midwife. I was a jack of all trades and a master of none. Something had to give. I changed the way I started to look at my day and my To Do list. I learned how to focus on 1 or 2 really important, productive goals each day and worked at them until they were completed. This allowed me to feel I had achieved what I set out to do, and, in turn, feel better about myself.
While it’s true that we live in a fast-paced society, one requiring more and more of us to take on more tasks, it remains to be seen whether we are improving productivity by doing this. If instead, we figured out what the most important tasks are to move the organization ahead and then focus workers’ resources on those tasks, it is likely that the productivity gains could be greater from this.
Buddhists believe that people should focus on one task and one task only. They widely hold the belief that we are not good at multitasking, in fact, we are terrible at it. Even if the task given is mundane, it should be completed to the best of our abilities and only then do we move onto something else.
You’ll find plenty of people who will swear that they are good multitaskers. But if you look deeper at what those people are doing, more often than not you will find they are not good at it at all. These people tend to get easily distracted because they are trying to do too many things at the same time. It’s not that they are necessarily worse at it. It’s just that since they hold the belief that they are good multitaskers, they tend to do it more than others. So they appear to be worse at it. None of us are really good at it. You will find your productivity will increase if you focus on one task at a time.
If you would like some help in making this change in your life, then contact me for a FREE 30 minute strategy session to point you in the right direction. Click here to arrange a time.
