As women, we’re often told that we are great at multitasking. But is this really a good thing? Multitasking is not what we may believe it is. But why?
We’re not actually doing several tasks at the same time. We’re actually switch tasking rather than multitasking. Each time we switch between tasks we are losing time as our brain recalibrates to accommodate the switch. This is incredibly inefficient.
Most people find that the portion of the exercise where they were multitasking takes them 50-100% longer than the equivalent task without multitasking. This is, quite simply, because they’re forcing their brain to switch between tasks. Instead of focusing on one coherent task at a time, ensuring that they do the one thing they are busy with well, they switch back and forth between tasks. It takes them much longer to switch in and out of the tasks they are focusing on.
So the next time you are told that your brain is wired for multitasking, please think twice before accepting it as a compliment.
Our brains are creative, underutilised assets to our thinking. They work best when allowed to focus on one task at a time. They also work best when supported by appropriately evolved tools.
This morning, when you started up your computer or your smart phone, you saw a folder inspired, sequentially designed interface to your information that has not evolved much in the past thirty-five to forty years. That is the same time it took to go from massive mainframe computers in air conditioned rooms to the incredibly powerful personal computer in your pocket. The one you use to access Twitter, update your status on Facebook and call your kids.
The truth is, when it comes to the time management tools most of us use on our personal computers and smartphones not much has changed.
Email, for example, allows your system to control you, rather than enabling you to control your system. Due to the sequential design, your priority emails get buried under the hundreds of spam items that come in after them. You can use your settings to, for example, highlight all the emails from your boss in red. Or you can sort by sender rather than by date. But these abilities don’t help much in wading through the hundreds and hundreds of emails you receive daily. All screaming equally loudly as one-another for your attention.
Opening your email inbox is like stepping onto an open outcry trading floor.
You walk into the office, greet your colleagues, reach your desk and open your computer. It needs an upgrade. So, while it takes its time booting up, you head to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. You return, cup in hand, sit before the machine and open your email. This is when the shouting begins.
Hundreds of voices with their demands in your inbox.
No way to clear the clutter from the priority items.
Every-one shouting at the same time.
Why do we do this? Why do we let other people’s priorities dictate our own at that very part of the day when we actually have a moment of golden time...? An uninterrupted moment at our desk before all the meetings, all the colleagues dropping by and all the water breaks begin.
Why? We rely on multitasking because we don’t know any better.