What multitasking really means, and why you shouldn’t do it!

I use the term “multitasking” a lot.  I used to say it with pride in interviews, “I am an excellent multi-tasker.  I can juggle several tasks at once, blah..blah…blah”.  I’m currently reading a book that is challenging my beliefs in this being a good thing.  The name of the book is “The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing it All” gets nothing done”, by Dave Crenshaw.  It’s a really easy read but has some challenging concepts in it.

The main concept is that multitasking as we commonly use the term is actually switchtasking.  Meaning if you are working on something, say writing your blog, and a phone call comes in and you answer it (or if  a colleague comes in and asks you a quick question) you may think you are juggling two things at once but you are actually switching gears in your mind to to the other task and then switching back to work on the original task.  This switching costs valuable time!  There is a quote in the book that really brought this home for me, being the techie person I am:  “The brain is a lot like a computer.  You may have several screens open on your desktop, but you’re able to think about only one at a time. - William R. Stixrud, Ph.D.“  The book walks the main character through exercises that illustrate this exact point and shows just how much time is wasted in switchtasking.

When I really started thinking about it, many of my previous posts support this way of thinking.  This book just lays it out in a way that really “clicked” for me.  Take, for example, the time study I blogged about a couple of months ago.  If you were diligent with your tracking and wrote down every time you stopped to answer the phone or e-mail etc.  you can see what I mean.  Every time you are working on a project and then stop to answer the phone, it takes you several seconds (or minutes) to switch back to where you were when you were interrupted.  A one-time interruption may not seem like a big deal, but add it up over dozens of times over the course of the day!  Not to mention when you are not giving one thing your full attention those around you can tell.

The ramifications of switchtasking go beyond just time management.  If you work in a team environment or have direct reports, those around you can get the feeling that you are not really listening to them.  I had this exact experience when I was a supervisor.  At the time, the feedback was that I really didn’t care about my direct reports.  In actuality, I was just trying to get everything done!  I honestly thought I could finish typing my e-mail and listen to what my employee was saying and answer their question at the same time.  Usually that is exactly what I did, but I found my team’s morale dropped because they didn’t think I cared about them.  Of course I cared about them! That was why I was working so hard to get everything done!  I had to make a concerted effort to physically stop what I was doing and pay attention to each individual as needed.  Morale greatly improved when I started doing that.  One example this book gives to help manage your time is setting up regular meetings with each of your key employees so they have one designated time to get their questions answered.  This will reduce the amount of interruptions and improve the relationship between you and your employees.

This concept translates to your personal life too, ensuring you are spending quality time with family and friends.  I highly reccomend this little gem of a book.  It will really get you thinking about how you work during the day and how you can better focus your time by concentrating on one thing at a time.