Multi-tasking is a myth.
How often have you heard someone say, “I’m great at multitasking”?
This may come as a bit of a shock if you’re proud of your ability to multitask, but multitasking is a myth.
Yep.
If you really want to perform at your best, stop multitasking NOW.
It’s like we all want to be busy bees. But let’s remember that busy bees are focused only on one task – making honey. Busy humans are often trying to do a gazillion things at once, and usually failing miserably. Whether we want to admit it or not!
Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT and one of the world experts on divided attention, says that our brains are “not wired to multitask well… When people think they’re multitasking, they’re actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive cost in doing so.”
This cost includes an increase the production of cortisol and adrenaline, which leads to an overstimulation of your brain, resulting in scrambled thinking and the dreaded brain fog.
So, if you are trying to perform two tasks that require high-level brain function at once, such as replying to emails while drafting your newsletter, for example…, your brain will struggle.
Your prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the part of your brain that regulates your thoughts, actions and emotions through its connections with other parts of your brain. It is responsible for reasoning, problem solving, comprehension, impulse-control, creativity and perseverance.
It does a lot!
And yes, it does have a limit on how much information it can hold at any one time. When we overload our PFC with information, its ability to perform conscious processing is severely compromised, unless you are willing to perform at less than your best.
What this means, is that we can only hold one item in full attention at any one time.
When we ‘multitask’, which is really juggling between tasks or task-switching, there is a cost. And the more we do this, the more we tire out our brain.
Don’t believe me? Try this exercise in this video below and let me know how you go.
Thomas Edison said: "Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing."
The opposite of multitasking and being ‘busy’ is deep work.
Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work, talks about four rules for deep work:
Book appointments to do deep work. Block out sacred time in your calendar to work on important tasks and projects so you can focus on the work that is most important to you.
Embrace boredom. Paradoxically, boredom leads to greater concentration as it addresses the connection our brain has built up for the constant need for stimuli. Rather than whipping your phone out when you have a moment of quietness or when your brain is saying or shouting ‘distract me NOW’, try to resist the urge and keep going with your task.
Quit social media. Yeah, no. While Cal Newport doesn’t do social media, this isn’t a reality for most of us. Instead, develop some healthy boundaries around how and when you use social media. Start by turning off all notifications.
Drain the shallows. What work do you do that could be characterised as ‘shallow work’? For me, this includes replying to emails, returning phone calls, doing 5 minute tasks such as paying bills, booking appointments, filing documents. Shallow work is that work that doesn’t require uninterrupted focus. Can you schedule time in your calendar for the shallow work at a time of day you know your ability to concentrate isn’t great?
What are you going to do to reduce how you multitask?
