"A man's gotta know his limitations"
Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry Callahan
I have some news you’re not going to like, but don’t dismiss it just because you’d prefer not to believe it. It’s true.
-- Do you talk on the phone while typing or reading emails?
-- Do you talk on the phone while driving?
-- Do you have numerous windows open on your computer at once, switching rapidly from one task to the next?
-- Do you stop what you are doing to jump on emails as they arrive in your inbasket?
These habits are reducing your productivity by up to 40 percent. But here is the good news; that means that if you are a heavy multitasker, you can increase your productivity up to 40 percent if you can wean yourself from some counterproductive multitasking behaviors.
Most of us engage in some of these forms of multitasking. It seems more stimulating to juggle several topics than to focus on one thing at a time. But guess what; it’s dragging our productivity down – way down – according to a growing body of scientific research.
While it is tantalizing to think we can do more than one thing at a time in order to get more done, more quickly, the fact is that such multitasking or task-switching can rob your work of its quality, reduce your overall output, increase stress, and inhibit your relationships with others. In fact, researchers say, the results can be catastrophic.
I've written extensively on this blog about multitasking and its implications for nonprofit communications professionals. It's a topic that interests me because I know multitasking is very counterproductive, but like you, I have to do it sometimes out of necessity. But many times I can control it and avoid it. It's a matter of disciplining myself to do so, and that is not easy.
Our productivity is the result of how effectively we apply our attention to our goals. Anything that interferes with the ability to focus your attention on your chosen goals will drain productivity.
Multitasking is especially harmful. Here is a good New York Times article summarizing some of the research on the ways that multitasking robs your productivity. A more recent but shorter article appeared in The USA Today Weekend by Laura Hoxworth, citing statistics that multitasking slows you down by up to 40 percent.
And while things like talking on a cellphone while driving may seem efficient, in fact, commuters who talk on their cellphones lose an average of 25 hours a year because they tend to drive more slowly. Twenty-five hours! That's more than half a week of vacation down the drain! Not to mention that cell-phone driving is as dangerous as driving drunk, according to the CDC.
Here's a quote from the New York Times article: “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes,” said David E. Meyer, a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”
Sometimes multitasking is unavoidable. But more often, many people (me) embrace multitasking either to avoid boredom, or to avoid focusing on their real problems and priorities, or because they feel they are somehow capable of more than is humanly possible. I am guilty of all of those! That's why this topic interests me -- because I find it difficult to practice what I preach. The result is a loss of productivity -- up to 4o percent!
Dirty Harry was right: A man's gotta know his limitations. Multitasking is simply wishful thinking. I wish I could do 5 things at once. I can't; nobody can. Not even you. According to scientists, humans get more done when they do tasks one at a time, consecutively, rather than at the same time.
Don't take my word for it: Here are about 20 research articles that validate what I'm saying.
Click here for links to about 20 research articles on the topic.
Have a productive day!
Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for nonprofits and Foundations
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