Multitasking is a myth
This is a myth which I’d like to spend a few minutes blowing straight out of the water today!
When I was younger, growing up in the 80s and then stepping into the wonderful world of work in the (late) 90s, the ability to multitask, to juggle as many tasks as possible and to attempt to be seen as superhuman, was seen as a badge of honour, an essential skill for working life which people absolutely needed to learn to cultivate.
I tried to do this myself, but the career I went into straight out of university (computer programming) really was not the kind of job where trying to jump from task to task helped me to do my best work.
In fact, what developers really need in order to be really successful is a pair of headphones — preferably noise-cancelling ones — an endless supply of coffee and several hours of uninterrupted time to focus. Programming is basically intense problem-solving, and to do it well, you need to follow the trail which leads to the solution without suddenly being dragged away to a meeting or asked to take part in any office fun.
There’s not much more frustrating than being derailed, just as you know the solution to the bug you’re trying to fix is just within reach of your fingertips, when someone comes up to ask you a question.
I’m not sure now when I first came across the idea that people can’t actually multitask. I suspect on some level I always knew it wasn’t true, though. I mean, it doesn’t feel all that great, does it, when you’re doing it, so it can’t really be working the way people once thought.
The latest thinking from neuroscientists and researchers is that even if we think we’re doing several things at once, we’re not. We’re actually just switching between tasks, really really quickly.
It can feel like we’re multitasking when we do really complex things, such as driving (teaching came under that same banner as well, for me), but what you’re actually doing is capitalising on the fact that we have muscle memory and that we don’t have to allocate as much awareness and conscious processing on certain tasks (like changing gears in a manual car, or marking a register while you’re also getting your lesson plan opened up) and thereby freeing up some bandwidth for other things (like messing about with your car radio or greeting your pupils as they walk in through the door).
We now know that human beings only have a certain amount of bandwidth (50 bits per second) to play with, when it comes to our ability to focus/take information in.
You may have experienced this if you’ve been driving to somewhere you’ve never been to before, and you turn down your music (or switch it off) as you’re nearing your destination. Or you might have been right in the middle of a conversation with your passenger, and you have to break it off as you navigate a particularly busy roundabout, for safety’s sake.
Somehow you know that you need that extra bandwidth back in order to successfully accomplish your task!
You might have read this far into the article and be wondering why I’m bothering to write it in the first place and also what the problem actually is! Is it just the fact that the name is wrong? Who cares about that?!
Nope, I’m sorry to say that it isn’t just that.
The truth is that multitasking (or to give it its correct, more clunky name, fast context switching) might actually be doing you harm and also holding you back in life. 😲
For a start, if you search online to see how long it takes us to get back on track with a task after we get distracted, every site I can find says it’s a whopping 23 minutes (and some add an extra 15 seconds on for good measure!) - and so if you’re constantly flip-flopping between tasks, even if it’s only a couple of things, what chance have you got of really getting back into a proper state of focus on either task? You’ll probably still get both done, but the chances are that they’ll both take you far longer than if you’d just done them sequentially, and you may well not do them as well - particularly if they’re creative tasks.
Secondly, if you’re constantly allowing yourself to be distracted, and letting other things (or people) pull your focus, then you’re not training your brain to support you in long periods of concentration. And our focus is like a muscle. We need to train it in order for it to improve.
A lack of focus is a huge issue, these days, partly because of our smartphones constantly beeping and buzzing and giving us teeny tiny dopamine hits when we realise someone messaged us or liked something we posted online. Things are worse for the younger generations, who’ve been raised with TikTok and other short form video media as a primary means of taking in information.
And this article from Forbes cites research from the University of Sussex which suggests that multitasking can also lead to both depression and anxiety. They believe that multitasking and a lack of focus changes our brain on a structural level, altering our grey matter and making us more susceptible to these kinds of debilitating issues.
So, what can we all do to reverse this and to give ourselves the best possible chance of succeeding (whatever that means to us) in life?
Here are some ideas:
Do not even try to multitask. Just don’t. And that includes watching telly while you’re eating. Studies show that people tend to eat more when they’re distracted.
Set out time blocks for your most important work, and give yourself enough time (this will be a different length for everyone) to really get absorbed in each task before you move onto something else.
If you really need to work on a few things, try The Pomodoro Technique, where you work for 25 (or more, at your preference) minutes and then take a break. Depending on the length of the working/resting sessions, this might help, or you might find it’s still too much of a distraction (remember that 23 minutes and 15 seconds from earlier!) Try it out, have an experiment, and see how you feel. If it’s working for you, you won’t feel as mentally scattered when you stop. If it doesn’t work, give it a miss!
Turn off your notifications/pop up alerts on every device you own. Decide you’ll check your email/messages when *you* want to, not when the app developers/phone companies want you to! Take the control back!
Do not scroll on your phone while watching TV. Not even to look on IMDb to see what that actor you’re sure you recognise has been in before. Pause the TV while you look or make a note to look it up later!
Find out about the concept of Flow. Flow is a state of mind where you’re so engrossed with a task that the time just flies by. It’s often where the real gold in life lies. For this to work, you need no distractions, and a task which is a bit of a challenge, but not so out of your wheelhouse that it makes you want to run away.
Don’t have the TV or distracting music/radio on in the background when you’re trying to focus.
Create before you consume. Try to do the hardest things as early in the morning as you can. Why? Because you’re closest to sleep, and your brainwaves are not far out of their Theta state until later in the morning. You’ll find it easier to focus and you have more chance of getting into flow, not to mention you won’t be being pulled in every direction by your family/friends/colleagues, just yet! I’m a big believer in the possibility of morning routines and eating that frog to transform lives!
Above all else, please don’t berate yourself if you feel like your attention is constantly scattered.
For a start, as we’ve already established life in the 21st Century doesn’t lend itself to deep focus and concentration, so you have to actively work to cultivate it. And if you’re neurodivergent, then focus could already be a big issue for you.
No matter what our situation, though, we can all choose work on these things, if we just take the guilt and shame out of it, and come to understand why we’re as distracted as we are, and that this is a completely normal part of being a human, especially in this modern world!
So cut yourself some slack, give your inner child a hug and get to work!
Because, at the end of the day, what have we all got to lose by trying? Absolutely nothing!