Key to Being…

Your cell-phone is ringing, your mailbox has 200 messages, a colleague is breathing down your neck and the boss just dropped two new projects on your desk.  Meanwhile, you’re attempting to swallow a stale muffin and cafeteria coffee, trying to remember if you let the dog out this morning.

Many people still believe multitasking makes you more productive.  It’s frequently included in job requirements and people at work (including the boss) are doing it and expecting it of you.  You can’t completely stop multitasking, as it is part of human nature.  But the fact is people multitask too much.  This is simply inefficient.

Multitasking does not make you more productive.  This isn’t really hot news.  Studies by several universities and companies prove this fact.

Studies: multitasking decreases productivity and quality

• David E. Meyer, a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan, stated the following in a NYT interview: “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes.  Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”

• People are distracted easily and have a hard time getting fully back into the task at hand.  Studies at Microsoft by research scientist Eric Horvitz have shown that workers take an average of 15 minutes to return to a task they were working on before being interrupted.

• René Marois, a neuroscientist and director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbilt University did a study where participants had to do some basic recognition tasks.  Answers were delayed by about a second when doing two tasks at once.  The human brain, despites its awesome power and billions of neurons has the simple inability to concentrate on two things at once, according to Marois.

• Cost of multitasking is difficult to measure, but Jonathan B. Spira, chief analyst at Basex, a business-research firm, estimates it to be nearly $650 billion a year to the American economy.

• The above is but a sample.  There are more studies that have been done and are increasingly being conducted.  Briefly put, multitasking is not efficient, heightens stress levels and increase errors.

Want to get more done in less time? 10 easy ways to single-task!

1. Learn to manage your technology.  What is tugging at your attention? Email, pager, blackberry, IM, etc.  Turn it off for at least certain hours of the day.
2. Set up the “Do not disturb” or “Away” flag for your instant message program
3. Avoid distracting music, television, background noise.  Reversely, quiet music with no words or nature sounds can help some people concentrate.
4. Make a to-do list and simplify your life. Got lots of things going on?  Create separate lists (e.g. work, home, party)
5. Limit the number of email addresses you have.  Less to check and less to remember!
6. I’m a morning person, so I do my most critical tasks during the morning.  Figure out when your most productive time of day is and get the big things out of the way then..
7. Allow time during the day for little, random things, such as checking email.  Each hour or two (whatever works), take 15 minutes to check emails and respond to or prioritize them.  Then go back to your project.
8. While working on an important task, ignore emails, internet and phone.  Shut off your cell phone if you can.  Tell your colleagues not to disturb you for an hour.
9. If you cannot avoid an interruption, make a note of where you stopped in your task.
10. Each hour, stretch or take a 5 minutes walk. Keep things in perspective.  It’s only work.

Your mind is not like a computer’s
Computers can switch back and forth between tasks quite easily, storing information in their memory.  For us it takes great effort and concentration, especially if the task is more complex.  So let your computer handle the multitasking.  It can do it better and won’t stress out.

Meanwhile you can focus on one thing at a time and feel the power of the present moment, increase the quality of your work and simply get more done.

By the way, I am a recovering multitasker and traces of it still appear in my daily activity. So you aren’t alone (along with a million others)

Message? Stop multitasking!  You’ll accomplish more, see the quality of work increase and maybe even help your insomnia.