The reason I stopped multi-tasking and switched to mono-tasking.
“Multitasking is a lie” ― Gary Keller
Our day revolves around doing different tasks that require different levels of focus and mindset. In an attempt to complete our tasks faster we tend to multitask.
We believe that multitasking saves us time, increases our efficiency there by multiplying our productivity. Multitasking is often thought of as an essential skill that a employer is always looking out for, in an employee.
During my school days, I completed one task at a time.I had time to complete every task because I wasn’t active in the co-curricular activities. When I joined college, I was part of multiple college fests and clubs. Which made me to leave a task I was doing and switch to another task without completing the initial task. I tried to hop around from one task to other.
The end result was embarrassing, all my undertakings lacked the polish and perfection. All of my tasks lacked the tiny bits of pieces that made it complete. Even my academics turned out to be egregious.
Then I figured out what was went wrong “it is multitasking”; now I take part in more activities than ever in college, managing to do better at all the activities.
“So if multitasking was the tried and tested way to efficiency and perfection, where did I go wrong?”
This led me to examine “What went wrong?”
I found out that it was the multitasking that took away all the glorious accomplishments that I would have achieved otherwise.
I started to read about multitasking from various sources online. I found out that all good aspects that were told about multitasking were a myth.
In reality multitasking does the following.
- It slows you down: Contrary to what we have learned multitasking actually slows us down.In a 2008 University of Utah study, drivers took longer to reach their destinations when they chatted on cell phones. This is an example case which shows that multitasking actually slows you down. So how do you do things quickly? do one thing at a time and things can be accomplished faster
- It makes you to commit mistakes: Experts found that switching between tasks caused a 40% loss in productivity. It also caused errors in whatever people were working on, especially if one or more of those activities involves a lot of critical thinking. A 2010 French study found that the human brain can handle two complicated tasks without too much trouble, because it has two lobes that can divide responsibility equally between the two. Add a third task, however, and it can overwhelm the frontal cortex and increase the number of mistakes you make.
- It stresses you out: When University of California Irvine researchers measured the heart rates of employees with and without constant access to office email, they found that those who received a steady stream of messages were found to be in a high alert mode with higher heart rates. Those without constant email access did less multitasking and were less stressed because of it Outcome of multitasking can also stress you out. If you do poorly on an exam because you studied while watching a football game on TV, that can certainly trigger a lot of stress — even self-esteem issues and depression.
- It kills creativity: Creativity arises when when have time to think. When we multitask, we do not have free time and hence the creativity that we posses dies down.
After reading these points in a website. It became clear to me that multitasking is never an answer to increase productivity and efficiency.
I started to one taskat a time. Every task we do require a particular mind set, once we are in that mindset we need to continue with the task and complete it. If we leave it in the middle and move on to another task that requires another task, we will end up slowing down and doing mistakes. The best way to increase efficiency is to do things that require similar mindsets one after another.
I started practicing this and became better at what I did, People started to compliment me for the better tasks I did.
Always remember, Multitasking is not a skill that you should put in your resume.
The research references against doing multitasking were taken from http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20707868,00.html#the-multitasking-myth-2
