Multitasking makes you stupid

Obviously written by a man because we all know that women are the only ones of the species that can actually multitask to begin with :)

When a client asks me how to be more effective, I tell them to focus on one thing until it is complete and then move on to the next thing. While we have the ability to juggle many tasks at once, doing so reduces our productivity.

Unfortunately, most of us are faced with conflicting demand on our time all day long and believe that multi-tasking will help us get things done. We use call waiting to answer a second call, look at e-mails the moment they arrive and how many times have you answered e-mail while you are on the phone with someone?

It has been my experience that when I remove all distractions and focus on a task, my work flows much more easily and I am pleasently surprised at how much work I've accomplished.

Perhaps women are wired to multi-task more easily than men. That doesn't mean that multitasking is an effective strategy.

Just so you all know, I was kidding about the man/woman thing.

We all need to learn to work smart so that we get the same results in less time. To do that, we must change how we work. We will get that most by changing our speed, increasing focus, and organizing to do things in parallel.

Try this next time you want to multitask. When you come home, position yourself by the recycle bin, immediately sort your mail and throw away the junk mail. This is busy work that is actually making forward progress. See how smart you will feel then.

I LOVE multitasking! The appeal of doing 14 things at once is irresistible! But I'm in agreement with you Catherine - and with the person who said this: "In trying to stay on top of everything, I never get to the bottom of anything."

I read this article earlier today as well. What I brought away from it was that I really needed to be razor focused on one task at a time. I try to do this now by making a task list and segmenting my day into chunks dedicated to single tasks or single projects at least. When I try to think about all of the things I have cooking right now it does indeed make me feel numb in the brain. However, I am up to some big stuff right now and I don't see much of a way around it.

Chris and I talked about this subject yesterday in the office -- we both work out of Office Nomads -- and I couldn't agree more.

I just read through this article in between sending a couple of emails and having a conversation over IM with one of my editors about this same subject (who, it should be noted, was sitting on his couch reading the paper and IMing with me). Of course none of it has stayed with me and I feel as if I accomplished nothing at all in that time.

On the other hand, I had four interviews for one story scheduled for today and decided early this morning that the only work I would do today would be those stories. While I didn't stay entirely true to that, 95% of what I got done today were those interviews and I feel as if I accomplished a ton.

For my life the article sums it up perfectly:

"... consider that “Where do you want to go today?” was really manipulative advice, not an open question. “Go somewhere now,” it strongly recommended, then go somewhere else tomorrow, but always go, go, go—and with our help. But did any rebel reply, “Nowhere. I like it fine right here”? Did anyone boldly ask, “What business is it of yours?” Was anyone brave enough to say, “Frankly, I want to go back to bed”?

It may be anathema to some, but sometimes, I just want to go back to bed. And you know what? I don't think that's a bad thing. As long as I get my work done to my and my clients' satisfaction, I have done what I have to. That means the rest of my time should be mine.

I know I write better A) when there's a time crunch on and B) when I focus on it. So I plan to try and focus a bit more on the task at hand over the next few weeks, and to stop going going going all the time as a result. I hope it works.

my problem is that i get scattered in too many directions.. David Kravchek had to watch me go 3 ways at once today. He was only here for an hour and he looked tired when he left just from watching me.

Multi-tasking is a serious problem for those of us with ADHD. You become so used to working on many things at once that it becomes harder and harder to focus on just one thing at a time.

A quick follow up on Elizabeth's line of reasoning...if multitasking makes you stupid and women are better at multitasking...doesn't that imply women are better at making themselves stupid =)

Absolutely true Kevin.

Multitasking is a myth. It just plain doesn't exist. Multitasking has become something of a heroic word in our vocabulary. Many executives pride themselves on their ability to "multitask". As most people understand it, is deceptively counter-productive. Multitasking is tremendously costly. Multitasking hurts us every time we attempt to engage in it.

When we speak of multitasking, what we really mean is that we are switchtasking: switching rapidly between one task and another. Yet, each time we switch, no matter how quickly that switch takes place in our mind, there is a cost associated with it. It's an economic term called switching cost—and the switching cost is high.

When you switchtask when dealing with a computer, you simply lose efficiency. But if you switchtask on a human being, you additionally damage a relationship.

Twitter that Dave and it will probably take on a life of it's own...or I guess it's "Tweet" that.

I should text someone and see if they want to do a Podcast (or is it webcasting now) on the switchtasking I see every day driving to the office - these folks are in danger of damaging more than their relationships.