Multitasking is often viewed and held up as a positive for professionals. We see those who multitask as able to successfully juggle multiple important tasks at once and, importantly, handle them all effectively and efficiently. But many observers in fields from business management to human resources to medicine argue that we should have a much different view of multitasking—it may not really be a sign of effectiveness at all.
Why Not?
In an article for Fortune, professor of neuroscience at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT Earl Miller makes a well-informed argument against multitasking. The entire article is definitely worth a read, but this paragraph in particular sums up the basic neurological antimultitasking argument:
When we toggle between tasks, the process often feels seamless—but in reality, it requires a series of small shifts. Say you stop writing a pitch for a client in order to check an incoming email—when you finally return to the pitch, your brain has to expend valuable mental energy refocusing on the task, backtracking, and fixing errors. Not only does this waste time, it decreases your ability to be creative.
How Do I Stop?
The urge to multitask is often subconscious, but the best way to get out of the habit is to consciously make yourself focus on one activity at a time. Writing for SmartBrief, Laura Small offers a number of tips on how to pursue minimalism as a way to improve your professional life, and several of these tips touch on how to move away from multitasking habits.
For example, “If you open an email, be prepared to read and respond to it … Once you’ve dealt with a message, delete that email or save it to the appropriate (and appropriately named) folder, so that you can easily find it later. Same goes for actual paperwork—pick it up, deal with it, and either pass it along or shred it.”
Multitasking has been given a good rap for a long time. We erroneously think that we are capable of effectively juggling multiple activities at once when science and data show this is simply not the case.
Do yourself a mental and professional favor and make a conscious decision to stop multitasking, and instead, focus on one item at a time. You may be pleasantly surprised at how much more productive you become.