Juggling is fun, but not with your attention.
The clock alarm rings at 6 am, waking John up from his blissful, uninterrupted sleep. He gets up immediately — time is precious after all — heading to the living room to do his 7-min high-intensity workout. He listens to a podcast in the meantime, registering half of its contents at most. He then heads to the kitchen to drink a glass of water while checking his emails and morning news. He grabs some muesli from the cupboard and milk from the fridge, mixing everything in a bowl. Whilst he does that, he manages to reply to an urgent email from his colleague and let his friend know that he won’t be able to make it to his birthday party on Saturday. He sits by the kitchen table, finishing off his breakfast, while checking the status of his Amazon delivery — it was supposed to arrive yesterday — and paying his overdue water bill (he already got three warnings). The news is still in the background. Halfway through he remembers it’s the Mothers’ Day in two-week’s time, so he leaves the Amazon site to search for flower delivery services. Oh, it’s his girlfriend’s birthday next month too, so maybe he should order a bouquet for her as well! But wait… what flowers does she like? He goes to her Instagram page, hoping for some inspiration. Tulips? Great! He manages to order two lovely bouquets, but then… what was it that he was doing just before then? He could swear it was something important!
Men just aren’t good at multitasking, are they?
Well, not entirely. Men couldn’t possibly be bad at multitasking, just as women couldn’t possibly be good at it, as — despite our common beliefs — there’s no such thing as multitasking.
Or rather, 98% of humans are not capable of consciously and attentively focusing on more than one thing at a time.
While researchers have shown that the majority of us can be aware of ca. 3–7 stimuli at any given moment, we can only actively engage with one stimulus at a time. This basically means that although you’re unlikely to be able to register all details about any given surrounding or situation, you can passively absorb multiple pieces of information without aiming to do so (e.g. the colour of the walls or the material the floor).
More importantly though, it is impossible for you to actively engage your attention with two activities or tasks at a time. Let me give you an example — if you’re simultaneously talking to a friend while checking your emails, you will either:
a) Stop listening to your friend and fully engage with the contents your emails;
b) Actively listen to what your friend is saying, but fail to actually absorb what’s written in your emails;
c) Rapidly switch attention from your friend’s words to the contents of your emails, registering only a portion thereof.
Thus, what happened to John in the scenario described above — and what happens to many of us on a daily basis — was a rapid switch of attention from one thing to another, eventually leading him to forget an important thing he not only wanted but also needed to attend to — his long-overdue water bill.
Interestingly, it’s become almost a standard to boast about one’s capabilities to multitask. Just like sleep deprivation, multitasking has somehow become an indication of one’s productivity and efficiency; but this assumption couldn’t be more wrong.
As multiple studies show, an attempt to pay attention to or switch between multiple things at a time, diminishes not only our productivity[1] (some researchers estimate that even by as much as 40%), but also… brain, mental, and physical health.
Just like opening too many tabs in your browser makes it work less effectively and eventually crash, juggling too many things in your mind will deplete your attention and stress you out — both physiologically and mentally.
The body of research on the topic is vast, but let me quote a few examples.
A study conducted by Clifford Nass at Stanford University showed that the brains of those considered as ‘chronic multitaskers’, were less effective and efficient even when they attempted to focus on one thing at a time. In a 2009 interview, the researcher summed up that multitaskers were ‘worse at most of the kinds of thinking not only required for multitasking but what we generally think of as involving deep thought’.
Another study conducted at Michigan State University[2], found that those who reported using multiple forms of media at the same time showed symptoms of anxiety and depression, based on their answers in the mental health surveys.
What’s more, rapid switching between tasks or willingly subjecting oneself to multiple stimuli at a time has been shown to cause mental fatigue (triggered by prolonged cognitive activity), which is one of the main symptoms of depression [3]. Although mental fatigue may not seem like a big deal, its long-term consequences can be grave, leading to mental block, lack of motivation, irritability, stress eating, or loss of appetite and insomnia.
Yet another study contradicts an assumption that multitasking can work well when we’re performing a physical task that we’ve mastered very well — for instance walking or running, when browsing Instagram feed or listening to a podcast.
Hyman et. al. in 2009, showed that people who talk on their cell phones while walking, ran into people more often and didn’t notice what was going on around them. The researchers had someone in a clown suit ride a unicycle. The people talking on a cell phone were much less likely to notice or remember the clown.
Now, this study might seem funny at first, but its implications are grave if we assume that multitasking might be one of the reasons why people cause car crashes or end up on zebra crossing on the red light. The consequences of doing so, as you can imagine, can be pretty serious.
But how can you possibly avoid attention switching or ‘multitasking’ in a world that constantly subjects us to multiple streams of complex information, through news, social media, instant messaging, work emails, and just the general hustle and bustle of modern life? It certainly isn’t easy, but there are some simple steps you can take right now to become more focused, and thus more productive and healthy.
1. Work smart.
If you absolutely must work on multiple tasks, Nass recommends limiting the number of things you juggle to maximum two at a time.
Another way to manage your attention smarter is to create a ‘to-do’ list for any given day, and work your way down the list from the most important and urgent task. The trick here is to keep yourself in check and avoid jumping between tasks until the one you’re working on is finished.
If, like me, you prefer to add variety to your working routine, apply the ‘Pomodoro technique’, by designating 20-minute blocks in which you focus solely on one task at a time, followed by a 5-minute break. You can then devote another chunk of uninterrupted 20-minute work on a different task.
However, if your mind is as restless as mine, chances are that new ideas will pop up in your head even at times of focused work. Instead of ‘dropping’ whatever it is you’re doing and focusing on the new, exciting idea, jot it down on a piece of paper and go back to it once you’ve finished the task.
2. Switch off.
Technology and social media are doubtlessly a great way to stay connected with the world around us. However, receiving endless Instagram notifications, Facebook messages, and texts, or habitually checking emails and social media feeds every few minutes, can lead to mental overwhelm. [4]
Thankfully, as one of my favourite quotes (by Anne Lamott) states, ‘almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.’ This also applies to your mind.
Though it might be hard to give our attention a well-deserved information detox, there are some simple tricks that can help:
a) Firstly, switching off notifications on your phone and checking emails and text messages at few designated times in the day (for instance in the morning, after lunch and at the end of the work day).
b) Secondly, blocking distracting websites and apps either in your browser settings or using a special app, such as SelfControl, Freedom, or LeechBlock or switching your phone to airplane mode to avoid receiving calls or messages at chosen times.
c) Thirdly, spending longer periods of time off-line. One of my friends goes as far as switching her phone and computer off on Sundays, while another makes sure to take frequent weekend retreats far away from the hustle of the city, or even decent mobile and internet connection.
3. Declutter.
Another common saying states that ‘a cluttered desk equals a cluttered mind’ and so one simple way to declutter your mind and free some attentional space is to make sure that your surroundings are tidy and ordered. This can apply to your desk at work, living space at home, email inbox, browser tabs, content of your bag, you name it. Removing any potential distracting items, such as magazines from your desk or random pieces of clothing lying around your flat, will limit the number of stimuli your mind is likely to be pulled toward.
In today’s busy world, multitasking is all too common, but as we hope we’ve shown you, it can be detrimental not only for your productivity but also to your mental and physical wellbeing.
We hope that the simple tips described above will help you put some simple habits in place that will enable you to give your attention some well-deserved rest, focus on one thing a time at any given moment, and thus become more efficient and healthy both at work and in life.
[1] Rubinstein et. al (2001), Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching, Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance 27(4):763–97
[2] Becker et. al (2013), Media Multitasking Is Associated with Symptoms of Depression and Social Anxiet, Cyberpsychology, Behaviour, and Social Networking
[3] Nazih, N. (2018), How To Overcome Mental Fatigue, According To An Expert, Forbes
[4] Agrawal, P (2018), 5 Ways To Overcome Online Social Media Fatigue For Mental Well-Being, Forbes
How to deal with stress is a publication packed with tips and techniques for dealing with stress and anxiety in everyday settings — brought to you by Agnieszka (Aggie) Zbieranska & Leon Taylor.
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