Truth, Lies and Multitasking: What you may not have realized

What would the tally be if you were to count the ways we all tend to sabotage our ability to learn or to be productive. Wouldn’t be too much, eh? We juggle multiple tasks by the hour and all with the skill of a busker in the subway, right?

Wrong.

Multitasking overloads the brain. The brain works most efficiently when it can focus on a single task for a longer period of time. Productivity can be reduced by as much as 40% when we split our attention among multiple priorities.

Learning designer and analyst at Learning Peaks, Patti Shank reminds us what more than a decade’s worth of research on multitasking has concluded:

1. Multitasking increases cognitive load, the total amount of mental effort being used in working memory.

2. We are not good judges of our ability to multitask (see the Dunning-Krueger effect for why this is the case).

3. Younger people who we assume should be able to multitask — especially children and adolescents — do the worst at it because they are not yet developed enough to deal with cognitive load.

4. Performance generally declines when multitasking.

Except, that is, for a select few.

Multitask Masters. 2% of the population seem to be able to multitask very well. It’s probably genetic. And, these “supertaskers” most likely gravitate to positions and roles that highlight their unique ability. To be a supertasker, you need the right neural ingredients. Sadly, for the rest of us, no amount of practice will make us better at multitasking.

So what should the 98% of us that aren’t supertaskers do to be better learners or more productive or both?

In Learn to Manage Your Attention and Managing Time Will Take Care of Itself, Srinivas Rao writes, “A key habit I’ve noticed in successful people repeatedly, is that they are ruthless in managing what they pay attention to.” He believes that distraction is at the root of many of our personal and professional problems. Rao lists four reasons.

1. Distractions destroy your ability to be in the present moment. You know the present moment? It’s the one that just passed by you while you were posting that photo of your lunch.

2. Distractions lead to dopamine surges. Social media and so many apps today are all about giving us that cheap neurochemical thrill.

3. Distractions cause excessive social comparison. If we are always looking, we will always find someone that is doing more and being more than us.

4. Distractions prevent real life connection. Put down your phone and start talking to the person across from you (but finish reading this first please).

Rao offers the following seven tips on how to better protect and develop your attention.

1. Treat your attention as currency. You only have so much so where do you want to spend it? Activities that require concentration and deep focus cost us little while those things that distract us and fragment our concentration cost more.

2. Start your day without devices.

3. Focus on your highest value activities. Rao says, “Productivity is not about the amount of time you spend on something, but it’s about the quality of the time you spend on something.” Quality is determined by your ability to manage your attention.

4. Unless you’re one of the special 2% avoid multitasking.

5. Program real downtime devoid of devices and social media.

6. Plan you day the night before. Having a plan means the day’s distractions won’t fatigue your decision-making ability.

7. Know your essential priorities. “If you want to get better at managing your attention you have to learn to say no to everything that’s not aligned with your essential priorities,” says Rao.