Early in my career, it was common to read job descriptions that included the phrase, must be good at multitasking. The term comes from the tech side of the house. It refers to computers that have the capacity to process multiple tasks at the same time. Business folks latched onto it and determined that doing many things at once is an awesome skill to have. Bosses decided it was what they wanted from their employees.
Our Brains Don’t Work That Way
Unfortunately, multitasking is a myth. The fact is that our brains don’t work that way. Other than things like breathing or your heart beating, the human brain has evolved to focus on one thing at a time. When we are performing multiple tasks, our brains are actually shifting focus from one thing to the next and back again. Studies continue to show that this constant shifting of focus takes it’s toll. We become tired more quickly. The quality of our work suffers. And the quantity of true, value-added work we can accomplish diminishes.
It’s important to understand that you may have created a feedback loop that encourages you to attempt to multitask. Even if you’re aware of the fact that you won’t be as productive trying to multitask, you’re tempted. You see, every time we complete even a tiny, simple task, our brains get a little shot of dopamine, which makes us feel good. When we skip from one little task to the next, it’s likely that we’ll complete a lot of small and unimportant things but we’ll have received lots of little shots of pleasure along the way. Our brains likes this and we can start to feel drawn towards more and more of those simple but relatively unimportant tasks. In order to be truly productive, we have to break that cycle!
Technology Doesn’t Always Help
In many ways, technology has driven the massive increases in worker productivity during the last 30 years. However, not all of our technology-related habit are good. In this technological age, the allure of multitasking has grown tremendously because connectivity has become ubiquitous. You no longer have to be at your desk in order for someone to contact you and you’re certainly not limited to a land line.
Nowadays we sit at our desks with our computers or in a conference room or airport lounge with our laptops or tablets. And our smartphones go everywhere with us! We’re almost constantly connected and every beep, buzz, or other notification draws our attention to that unread text or email. And because our brains have learned to want that little shot of dopamine we get from quickly checking our email, we become distracted by the desire to at least look. That desire divides our attention, breaks our focus, and makes us less productive. It also increases our level of stress. If we resist the urge to look, it nags at us. If we go ahead and check the text or email, then we feel guilty for not staying focused on the more important task at hand. Either way, we lose.
Reprogram Your Brain to Resist Multitasking
You’ve heard the story of Pavlov’s dogs? He would ring the bell and then feed the dogs; ring the bell and feed the dogs; over and over until the dogs would involuntarily drool whenever the bell was rung. Their brains learned to associate food with the ringing of the bell. What you don’t often hear about is the fact that Pavlov was able to reverse the learned response. They would ring the bell and NOT feed the dogs; repeat and rinse, until the involuntary response was reversed.
One common way that people deal with the temptation to multitask is to turn off notifications on their devices. Such measures simply avoid the temptation. Perhaps a better way to deal with it is to retrain your brain!
Schedule specific times throughout your day to deal with email and text messages, and stick to that schedule. When you receive a new message notification, simply tell yourself you’ll review it during the next scheduled review session. Now go back to what you were doing. Don’t try to resist the temptation; simply acknowledge it and remind yourself that you already have a plan for it. Eventually, your brain won’t associate a notification with the little shot of dopamine it gets by completing that little task. In fact, it’s likely that your brain will learn to desire adherence to your email schedule once it experiences the AWESOME shot of dopamine it gets when you achieve and maintain Inbox Zero!
So What?
Multitasking is a myth. Science proves that it can’t be done by mere mortals. Avoiding it isn’t good enough though because the temptation remains. And that temptation nags at us and causes stress, which makes us even less productive. If you acknowledge that multitasking is impossible, then you can start rewiring your brain. Instead of being tempted by emails and texts and countless other odds and ends, you can plan for them and become more single-focused. Focusing on a single task allows you to get more of the important things done with the time you have!
Now What?
Journal Prompts: What are small tasks that I perform that interrupt my most important work? Is multitasking something that’s expected of me or do I expect it of myself? What are some triggers that cause my brain to lose focus on the task at hand?
Next Action: Pick two or three times throughout the day when you will process email, voicemail and texts. Enter those times as recurring appointments on your calendar. Even if you give in and check things between those times, always process email, voicemail and texts during those allotted times. Within a couple of weeks, you’ll find it much easier to stay focused on the task at hand.
Further Reading: Grab a copy of Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work, and learn to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.