How many of you think you work more efficiently when you multitask? I used to think I did. At any point I would have several things going on at once. Multiple browser windows open. The TV on. Talking on the phone. Chatting with a friend online. Trying to do it all at once.
It wasn’t until I made a conscious choice to try not multitasking for a significant trial (a couple weeks) that I realized just how much more productive single-tasking could be.
See, when you’re doing several things at once, a huge percentage of your creative thinking is dedicated to keeping it all straight. Like with juggling, a lot of your brainpower is focused on how to work rather than the actual work. And the actual work is the goal, not the how.
In his book The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done, Dave Crenshaw details just how multitasking slows you down. This is a must-read for all you multitaskers out there.
I’ll give one analogy that you may be familiar with if you use computers much. Have you ever noticed that your computer responds faster when you have just one program running than it does when you have lots of stuff open at once? There are many reasons for this, but the biggest two are almost identical to what goes on in your mind when you’re multitasking:
- Memory constraints: Computers have subsystems akin to the brain’s short-term and long-term memory. In the computer, the data that is currently being worked with is in a very fast (but small) block of memory called the L2 cache. A lot more is in the much slower main memory. And the vast majority is on disk, which (by comparison) is blindingly slow. The brain is similar. When you have a lot going on, short-term memory can’t hold it all; a lot of time is spent accessing the larger but slower long-term memory. Even if it was just a couple minutes ago, it’s dropped from short-term memory, and you have to dig deeper in to recall the pieces to remember all the relevant info to make the next decision.
- Context switching: The processor of a computer can only actually be computing one thing at a time (well, new multi-core processors break this, but even they are limited by the number of cores, which is usually two or four). If it wants to change from one program to another, a lot has to happen. First, everything it was currently doing has to be saved somewhere. Then, the saved portion of the program being switched to has to be loaded. Then it starts executing instructions on the new program. After a millisecond or so, it switches again, this time to a third program or back to the first. And so on. The more programs that are being switched between, the more time spent doing the switching, and the less time available to actually work on the resultant tasks. The brain does the same, though we don’t recognize it at the time. When you change tasks, you’re effectively putting parts of your neural net on hold and starting other parts up. This process takes time… not much, but it does add overhead. Each time you switch, you have to get new pathways active again. The more you switch, the more time proportionally that is spent waiting rather than producing.
Here’s the amazing result: if you’re concentrating fully on a task, and you get interrupted even for just a second or two, it can take up to a minute or even more to get back into a fully concentrative state on your original task. Switching away to glance at the TV or answer a simple yes/no question sets you back drastically in your work.
Don’t expect that the people around you will stop interrupting you. But at least you can stop adding your own interruptions. Turn your phone off. Turn off the radio or TV. Turn off chat and email notifications. When it’s time to concentrate, do one thing at a time until you’re done or have used the time you have available. Then switch to the next thing.
If you need to get a job done, stop multitasking.
Resources:
In the news
- Whew! At least the Girl Scout cookies are still OK: More Than 200 Peanut Butter Products Now Under Recall
- ‘Hard’ does not mean ‘impossible’… c’mon, you can do it! Why Saying No to Foods May Be Harder for Women
- I doubt this is cause-effect. I suspect both conditions share a root cause deeper in the mind: Heavy Smoking as Teenager Might Add Pounds Later
Quote for the week
Success in any endeavor requires single-minded attention to detail and total concentration. – Willie Sutton
Healthy thoughts,
Jeff
