“Multitasking is dead. It never worked and it never will.
Intelligent people love to sing its praises because it
gives them permission to avoid the much more
challenging alternative: focusing on one thing.”
– Timothy Ferriss
Like you, I have a lot of shit to do. Also like you, I never have a comfortable amount of time in which to do it. This is not a bad thing. If I had proceeded with many tasks at a comfortable pace, I’d be stuck somewhere between the tenth grade and learning to preheat the oven. Work is work and needs to be done. However, launching yourself headlong into four different tasks without a plan is a surefire way to slowly get none of them done. Solicited or not, I’m here to help. So, without further ado, let’s take a critical look at: Multitasking.
Upon reading the word multitask, many are picturing some pimple faced tween
instant messaging with their friend (read: fifty year old sexual predator) while simultaneously reading The Hunger Games and listening to music. This is the most obvious example of multitasking, but not the most troubling. (In fact, I wrote this article while listening to Above and Beyond's Essential Mix, which was just the ambient noise I needed to focus while my housemates were playing COD). I'm more concerned with people who are attempting multiple tasks at once, all of which demand more than passive attention. Walking and talking is fine by me.
Intelligent people love to sing its praises because it
gives them permission to avoid the much more
challenging alternative: focusing on one thing.”
– Timothy Ferriss
Like you, I have a lot of shit to do. Also like you, I never have a comfortable amount of time in which to do it. This is not a bad thing. If I had proceeded with many tasks at a comfortable pace, I’d be stuck somewhere between the tenth grade and learning to preheat the oven. Work is work and needs to be done. However, launching yourself headlong into four different tasks without a plan is a surefire way to slowly get none of them done. Solicited or not, I’m here to help. So, without further ado, let’s take a critical look at: Multitasking.
Upon reading the word multitask, many are picturing some pimple faced tween
instant messaging with their friend (read: fifty year old sexual predator) while simultaneously reading The Hunger Games and listening to music. This is the most obvious example of multitasking, but not the most troubling. (In fact, I wrote this article while listening to Above and Beyond's Essential Mix, which was just the ambient noise I needed to focus while my housemates were playing COD). I'm more concerned with people who are attempting multiple tasks at once, all of which demand more than passive attention. Walking and talking is fine by me.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, however, there's not much to debate when multitasking has been scientifically proven to make people dumb, and especially if you think it doesn't. Compounding the suck is the inevitable time loss when your focus switches to another task. The more you alternate tasks, the more time you waste. It’s simple math. Time is needed to become re-familiarized with the work and to resume the point you were at in the process. One study determined multitasking to be up to 40% less efficient than singular focus, depending on the complexity of the task. Some scientists go so far as to say multitasking is impossible. Based on my limited knowledge of neuroscience, this is true, as we would require two brains to multitask just like computers require multiple processors to truly multitask. Multitasking or "task switching”, either way, it's preventing you from producing your best work in the least time.
Now that you are singularly focused, one time saving strategy I find effective is setting unrealistically tight deadlines to expire before they get you into trouble. Parkinson's law states that tasks will fill the time allotted to them, so use this to your advantage. To justify their procrastination, many people use an excuse like, “I work best under pressure”, or “I can’t get motivated with such a distant deadline”. Cool. So set a crazy tight deadline and get to work. Self imposed deadlines can be just as effective as concrete ones, especially if the deadline ends with the beginning of something awesome like binge drinking, weekend plans (with or without binge drinking), or a workout. Whatever you enjoy, it’s often effective to schedule a work period beforehand.
Knowing now that multitasking is not an ability we want to develop, why do countless people still do it? (Not) dropping everything to start a more urgent task gives people a chance to play the hero. In fact, multitasking is an almost sure sign that you care and are working hard to do a good job. However, just because it makes you feel good, doesn’t mean you should do it. This mistake is put on display in gyms everywhere. People want everything at once and attempt to lose fat, gain muscle, get stronger, improve flexibility, up VO2 max, and make a sick playlist, all in the same workout. What actually happens is, well, nothing. These are all admirable goals, but muddling your focus leads to mediocre results. Instead, pick one task and own it.
Multitasking may not be the worst waste of time in the world, however, it becomes harmful when it disguises itself as a beneficial action. We do more and more of it, expecting greater returns, yet only find ourselves more strapped for time. It leaves no room for relaxation and, as a result, we are always running on half empty. I’d rather run on full, half of the time. Our mantra for self improvement should be - Stress. Recover. Repeat. - instead of trying to make difficult or boring tasks pleasurable and inevitably extending the time required. It's for this reason that everything awesome like sprinting, sex, consciousness, and reading my articles are most appreciated in focused bursts. Multitasking, abandon it.
Now that you are singularly focused, one time saving strategy I find effective is setting unrealistically tight deadlines to expire before they get you into trouble. Parkinson's law states that tasks will fill the time allotted to them, so use this to your advantage. To justify their procrastination, many people use an excuse like, “I work best under pressure”, or “I can’t get motivated with such a distant deadline”. Cool. So set a crazy tight deadline and get to work. Self imposed deadlines can be just as effective as concrete ones, especially if the deadline ends with the beginning of something awesome like binge drinking, weekend plans (with or without binge drinking), or a workout. Whatever you enjoy, it’s often effective to schedule a work period beforehand.
Knowing now that multitasking is not an ability we want to develop, why do countless people still do it? (Not) dropping everything to start a more urgent task gives people a chance to play the hero. In fact, multitasking is an almost sure sign that you care and are working hard to do a good job. However, just because it makes you feel good, doesn’t mean you should do it. This mistake is put on display in gyms everywhere. People want everything at once and attempt to lose fat, gain muscle, get stronger, improve flexibility, up VO2 max, and make a sick playlist, all in the same workout. What actually happens is, well, nothing. These are all admirable goals, but muddling your focus leads to mediocre results. Instead, pick one task and own it.
Multitasking may not be the worst waste of time in the world, however, it becomes harmful when it disguises itself as a beneficial action. We do more and more of it, expecting greater returns, yet only find ourselves more strapped for time. It leaves no room for relaxation and, as a result, we are always running on half empty. I’d rather run on full, half of the time. Our mantra for self improvement should be - Stress. Recover. Repeat. - instead of trying to make difficult or boring tasks pleasurable and inevitably extending the time required. It's for this reason that everything awesome like sprinting, sex, consciousness, and reading my articles are most appreciated in focused bursts. Multitasking, abandon it.
