Multitasking is a myth

[sadiksojib35]

Let's dot all the i's and cross all the t's

If you chase two hares,
you won't catch either one.
Russian proverb
Multitasking has become a common element of business culture and is perceived as a necessary and useful quality. It is believed that a person who performs several actions simultaneously is very effective and productive. Let's figure out if this is really true.

Take a piece of paper, a pen, and a stopwatch. Write the word “multitasking” and a series of numbers from 1 to 15 in two different ways. Measure the time it takes you to do both.

The first time, write alternating letters and numbers: first the argentina phone number lead letter M, then, under it, the number 1, the letter H, the number 2, etc., as if you were filling out a table by columns.

The second time, write the whole word first, and then a series of numbers.


Compare the time you spent.

Are you surprised that in the first case you completed the task one and a half to two times longer? In fact, there is nothing surprising. Researchers of cognitive abilities have long established that a person cannot solve several mental problems at the same time. Our brain is designed in such a way that only one thought can be in focus. This means that there can only be one task on which the brain is working at the moment with maximum productivity. In order to start working on another task, we need to switch. Even a computer cannot switch instantly, and a person even more so! And if we are talking about a complex intellectual task, then the “cost of switching” can reach two minutes: each time we need to return our attention, concentrate, remember where we stopped, what we wanted to do next. Thirty such switches a day - and now a whole hour of precious time is lost!

Along with time, we also lose energy. Just as a car uses up maximum fuel when accelerating, our brain spends a lot of energy on the process of focusing on a new task. With frequent switching, we get tired faster, our attention is scattered, we make mistakes. The quality of task performance suffers, we cannot bring things to completion. Each of us is familiar with the feeling when you try to complete as many tasks as possible all day long, grab everything at once, answer and help everyone, and by the end of the day you are squeezed like a lemon, but there are no truly well-done tasks.

Is multitasking good when working in a team? Imagine that you are taking part in organizing a Freshman Day and are responsible for making souvenirs. The organizing committee is discussing issues that do not concern you yet - a quiz, audiences, presenters... You listen to the discussion with one ear, and in order not to "waste time" you decide to write a letter to your academic supervisor for now. You quickly lose the thread of the general conversation, and when they ask you "Will we have time to make the medals?", you do not immediately understand that they are asking you, you have to ask again, clarify what was discussed. Everyone is awkward and offended. Teamwork is stalled. To be honest, the letter was not a success either: important details were missed, a file was forgotten to be attached...

We can only talk about something similar to multitasking if you do one of them completely "automatically". You can run and listen to music at the same time. But if you suddenly can't make out the words of a song, you slow down or even stop, and if you decide to run some segment at maximum speed, you no longer hear the music.

It must be acknowledged that real multitasking does not exist, it is a myth. All our attempts to do several things at once cost something – time, quality of execution, energy reserves, relationships with colleagues.

If you want to increase your efficiency and build fruitful relationships, give up multitasking, solve problems sequentially, with maximum immersion in each of them.