Will multi-tasking get you home early tonight?
Most of us don’t have the luxury of being able to focus wholly on one project or task. In fact we consider ourselves lucky if we can count our live and vital projects on one hand. Many recruiters include ‘an ability to multi-task’ in their job descriptions. What is it they’re actually looking for and can multi-tasking capabilities really help us get ahead? Here is a short experiment that is often put forward to question the effectiveness of multi-tasking.
Multi-tasking takes longer
Let’s take 3 projects on a person’s desk A, B and C. Let’s say each will take 4 time units of effort to complete. If we complete one project before moving on to another we get
- AAAA – BBBBB – CCCCC = Simples...
When we multi-task, we bounce back and forth between the projects. The work would look something like this
- AA – BB – CC – AA – BB – CC = Just as easy?
We might feel like we are making more progress and yet if you count the “dashes” the re-focussing time we have two in scenario one and five in scenario two. Even on simple tasks that refocusing time, at each swap in focus, could be two to fifteen minutes. With each swap the effort time extends as does the elapsed time until the task is complete, it takes far longer, often double the time, to get the jobs done than if they were done sequentially.
Multi-tasking increase error rates
Experiments on the nature and limits of human multitasking have shown multitasking is not as workable as concentrated times. In general, these studies have disclosed that people suffer severe interference when even very simple tasks are performed at the same time, The result is poor performance. Recent research has proven that students who study while using Facebook, Twitter and text messaging friends at the “same time” negatively impacted their exam grades.
When people attempt to complete many tasks at one time, or rapidly shift between them, errors rates go way up
A study at the University of Utah found that those who believe they can multitask effectively are wrong and, in fact, they are often bad at it. Researchers discovered that people who multitask the most – including talking on a cell phone while driving – are least capable of doing so. “What is alarming is that people who talk on cells phones while driving tend to be the people least able to multitask well,” said psychology professor Dr. David Sanbonmatsu, a senior author of the study.
Multi-tasking reduces our ability to filter, organise and remember
Researchers at Stanford confirmed that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention to any of them, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time. Termed “continuous partial attention” by multi-media pioneer Linda Stone.
"When they're in situations where there are multiple sources of information coming from the external world or emerging out of memory, they're not able to filter out what's not relevant to their current goal," said Wagner, an associate professor of psychology. "That failure to filter means they're slowed down by that irrelevant information."
What is an effective alternative to multi-tasking?
So without multi-tasking, not only might we have a greater sense of completion and less project-juggling to do, it seems that the projects themselves would probably be better off if we didn’t all feel the pressure to work on everything at once and could just focus on the task at hand. Nearly all the research shows multi-tasking is less efficient, it is much more efficient to finish one task at a time. Efficiency is not the same as effectiveness however – effectiveness is making sure you’re focussing on the most important goals and tasks.”
1. Chunking
Sometimes it might not be possible or appropriate to finish A completely before moving onto B then C. Business projects have degrees of dependence between related tasks. Once you know you’re focused on the right goals and tasks, the answer is "chunking" – divide your time into appropriate chunks so that you can make meaningful progress on that part before moving onto the next goal or task. This is actually putting tasks and events into the best possible sequence and is definitely not attempting to do two things at once.
2. Build in “screen breaks”
Be sure you have an appropriate amount of time each day, free of all forms of electronic devices. The first and last hours of the day are good for that. There are some jobs that require us to be sat in front of a screen for most of the day and plenty that do not. Either way you need some time away from all devices.
3. Build in “unavailable time”
Being always available, being always accessible being visible on-line at all times is not a sign of effectiveness; it is a sign of addiction. Build in some time each day, even if it is only 30 minutes – 60 minutes to block out the world, stop, think and focus on your top priority. Highly focussed attention, just like highly focussed energy, produces significantly greater results than diffused focus.
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