Move over multitaskers!
Did you know single-taskers are more productive?
Written for Flock on May 3, 2018
Think you are getting more work done by multitasking? Think again. The more browser tabs you have open, the less likely you are to be productive.
While this sounds counter-intuitive, it’s scientifically proven that individuals who focus on a task at a time are more productive than multi-taskers.
The facts
The New York Times published an article that examined the case of multi-taskers. David Strayer, a professor of psychology, and his colleagues conducted research on how people master multitasking. Their findings? Only 2% of the population is effective at juggling multiple tasks. In further research carried out by the American Psychological Association, it was found that multitasking reduced productivity by up to 40%.
So, what is it about multitasking that makes it so bad for productivity?
Multitasking is an illusion, we’re tricking ourselves to believe we’re handling many tasks at the same time, but what we are really doing is simply switching from one task to another, back and forth, during that given period. — Dean Yeong, writer on high performance for creative people
Hiring manager turned career coach Lisa Quast offers some insight into why multitasking has a negative impact. She says that while we’re switching between tasks we’re actually wasting time trying to refocus and that it’s best to finish the task at hand first.
