The Multitasking Myth
The pressure to multitask isn’t new, but it sometimes feels as if it reaches new heights with every passing day. The evolving nature of work is partly responsible. New information is coming at us every moment now – demanding our attention, requiring decisions, calling for action.
We also have ourselves partly to blame. Or at least the way we use technology. Many devices surround us, on our desks at work, and attached – literally and figuratively – to our hips, and more recently, to our wrists. Alerts and notifications feed our brain’s growing need for constant stimulation.
This is where the myth of multitasking becomes surprisingly powerful. Multitasking?feels?busy. It?feels?productive. We ping-pong back and forth between writing an important email, noticing an alert on our company’s social media feed, reading a text message from a colleague, checking a database for the piece of information they need, then back to… wait, what were we working on again? Our brains lie to us, telling us that we’re getting?so much?done. We’re not. Multiple studies have proven that multitasking is?less?productive, not more.
Each time we change our focus from one task to another, there’s a ‘lag’ in our brain’s processing. It takes a little bit of time for our brain to move from one task to another and come up to speed. Those brief moments add up throughout the day, and that causes us to lose productivity. On top of that, we’re less effective at the work we do, making it more likely we’ll make mistakes.
Focus counts, and in a world of distractions, focus can be elusive. I have three things you might consider trying to regain yours.
Pomodoro Technique
The first is employing the?Pomodoro Technique. Our brains can only focus for a finite time. We can harness that by intentionally working with and around those constraints, and that’s what Pomodoro is all about. Start working on a single task. Give that task your undivided attention for 25 minutes. Then take a 5–10-minute break. For the next 25 minutes, work on a single task again – the same or a different one, but?only one. Take another 5–10-minute break. After you’ve completed four of these 25-minute work periods, give yourself a more extended break – 20 or 30 minutes. This cycle allows you to tap into your brain’s inherent ability to focus by giving it the downtime it needs to regroup.
One caveat: don’t expect the focus to come naturally at first. You’ll almost certainly need to train your brain to resist distractions, so do what you need to do to help it. Hide your phone, close other browser tabs, close your office door. Whatever it takes.
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Several Pomodoro timer apps are available to make it easy to set these intervals in place. If you’d like to use more advanced tech to help you, I’ll highlight two possibilities.
Toggl Track
Toggl Track?is designed for people who need to keep track of their time for billing and reporting, but it works well for this purpose (even the free plan). The catch? It requires honesty because it relies on self-reporting. It feels good to report that if you’ve worked on a presentation for a solid hour. But it also means admitting that you spent fifteen minutes catching up on Facebook. If you’re diligent and honest in your entries, you’ll end up with a clear view of how your time at work is spent. And, of course, knowing that you’re supposed to ‘fess up’ to Facebooking may just cause you to reconsider.
RescueTime
If you’re looking for a bit more,?RescueTime?might be your answer. It’s a paid service, but it offers more functionality – and less dependence on honesty. This app provides automatic analysis of your distractions, clocking the time you spend on (for example) social media sites versus in a work database or email. It offers blocking features for time-sucking sites for those whose willpower may sometimes falter.
Way Forward
Whatever methods or supports you choose, give up on the myth of multitasking once and for all. Recapture your ability to focus and make 2022 your most productive year yet.
Note: Links to productivity resources referenced can always be found on my website:?Jim Newcomb Resources.