“To do two things at once is to do neither.”
-Publius Syrus
Do you ever clean out your email inbox when listening to a conference call at work?
What about taking a call from a colleague when at your child’s baseball game?
“There’s just so much to do each day” you say. “I have to do at least two things at once or I’ll never get everything done!”
Well, I hear you. But, just like I cannot take a sip of coffee and talk on the phone at the same time, our brains cannot process 2 separate events.
Recent neuroscience research tells us that the brain doesn’t really do tasks simultaneously as we once thought. In fact, we just switch tasks quickly. Each time we move from listening in on the conference call to writing an email or talking to someone, there is a stop/start process that goes on in our brains. That start/stop/start process is a real energy waster. Rather than saving time, it costs time (even very small micro seconds). It’s less efficient, we make more mistakes, and over time it can be energy zapping.
Not only that, but trying to do too many things at once causes the brain to actually lose the capacity for deep thinking altogether!
The thing is we may be able to rapidly switch between tasks, but we are not able to do so in any depth. The result is that eventually we just end up just skimming across the surface of tasks at hand. In the long-term it actually changes the brain from being able to focus deeply on a single task well, to one that wants to jump around a lot.”
This isn’t to say that efficient multitasking is completely impossible. Studies have consistently found that about 2–2.5% of people are what’s called “supertaskers” and are able to efficiently work through multiple problems at once. But don’t assume this is you. In fact, people who think they are the best at multitasking are almost always the worst at it.
QUICK TIP: Next time you think you’re multi-tasking, stop and be aware that you are really switch-tasking. Then give yourself a time limit (10 minutes, 45 minutes?) – Whatever the task requires – and focus on just that one task.
See if you can’t complete it better, faster, and with less energy.
This article is an excerpt from her best-selling book – You’re Busy. I Get It. Quick Tips to Accomplish More with Less Stress. Available on Amazon.
