Multitasking and The Boiling Milk
Doing it all gets nothing done. Multitasking myths busted.
How often have you stood in front of the stove waiting for the milk to boil, and it has boiled over and spilled because you were busy multitasking?
We run out of patience and get tempted to finish a few tasks while monitoring the milk pot. The phone rings or the doorbell rings, and we run to open the door, and in that instant, the milk boils over. Sometimes we get busy scrolling on the phone, reading messages or social media, and the milk boils over. We can use the few minutes of the waiting time to complete some work.
This happens to me very often. When the milk boils, I spend an extra fifteen minutes cleaning up the mess. In actuality, I don’t save any time by multitasking. My impatience wasted milk, and I spent more time than I thought I would. It costs me time and energy to be impatient.
Why do we multitask?
The simple reason we all multitask is that we become impatient.
Technology makes it possible to multitask. Smartphones and other similar gadgets allow us to get easily distracted. It will enable us to use our time, energy and attention in more than one way at any point in time.
There can be many reasons for our impatience. We may want to reach somewhere faster and complete more work in less time; we have several goals to meet, or it could be a low attention span problem.
Organizations consider multitasking a core competency for specific jobs in a professional setting. But they need to remember that individuals are not designed for multitasking.
Sometimes multitasking may be beneficial, but we must think about when to multitask and when not. Impatience can sometimes prove counterproductive. Divided attention can lead to mistakes and confusion.
“Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.” ~ Gary W. Keller
Media multitasking affects the brain.
Doing multiple tasks in parallel creates neurological changes, as per research. Switching between different devices lowers grey matter density in part of the brain that is associated with cognitive and emotional control.
When we do multiple things simultaneously, our attention gets divided. Scattered attention slows down work, and the item gets done poorly.
Multitasking a productivity killer
A senior executive in a company I was working with as a coach struggled to remain focused. He would attend several meetings in a day, some important and some unimportant. In all the meetings, he would struggle to focus on what was getting discussed as he would always be busy reading emails or responding to messages on his phone. He would often need to catch up on some vital points made by the speaker. His performance was affected, and the management was concerned about his ability to scale and take on a more prominent role.
It takes a lot of practice to focus, be present, and do one thing at a time.
Last week, I was at a doctor’s clinic to meet the counselor for my cataract eye surgery. I patiently sat in front of the counselor with all my lab reports for her to go through and schedule my surgery. But she was busy talking on the phone, attending to one customer, typing something on the computer, and changing some records for another customer. So she was attending to three of us simultaneously, and none of us was happy as we were getting delayed. There were another five patients in the queue. Finally, my patience snapped. I asked her to focus on one patient at a time so that we could move on to the next step. Her multitasking was slowing down the process.
“What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50 percent.” ~ Susan Cain
Understanding multitasking myths.
Knowing and understanding the myths will help us improve and manage our time and therefore improve productivity.
- Sense of accomplishment: We get a sense of false accomplishment when we complete multiple minor tasks simultaneously. Once we taste this kind of success, we get addicted and start attempting the process both in personal and professional work. We lose the ability to work with deep focus. Quality of work and productivity suffer. According to Cal Newport, “the more you context switch, the less effective it becomes. Newport says, ‘to produce at peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distractions.
- Conserving energy: Multiple mentally taxing tasks, if done simultaneously, cause energy loss. We cannot save energy by shifting focus from one task to another. We end up draining energy reserves.
- Improves productivity: This is one of the biggest myths that we all succumb to. According to Forbes,98% of the population doesn’t multitask well. Only 2% are good at multitasking. When we work on multiple things simultaneously and shift our focus, the brain takes some time to refocus. According to studies, multitasking reduces productivity because it takes extra time to shift mental gears every time a person switches between tasks.
“when someone says they’re ‘good at multitasking,’ they’re really saying they’re inefficient. It’s like publicly admitting you’re going to make it a habit to screw up multiple things at the same time. “And, ironically, people who consider themselves great at multitasking are statistically more likely to be the worst at it.”
― Dave Crenshaw, The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done
Thankyou Sahil Patel for this great publication.
There are 3 reads I enjoyed this week,
I like Yana Bostongirl article about “ Hardwiring Happiness” method to boost her happiness.
Patrick OConnell article about 3 Perfect Ways to Lose Customers.Insights provided by him are very helpful.
Josephine Crispin article Chose Beauty Over Ugly.
