The myth around multi-tasking

So many tasks! So little time!

I know most of you will agree with me that multitasking is completely inevitable, and it’s because we need to complete so many tasks in a day now! Adult life, am I right?

Well, we are wrong here. Even though we multitask every day, like when we are watching TV and also surfing on Instagram and replying to WhatsApp messages. This leads to utter discontentment because we are never really able to apply our emotions to one activity.

But there’s no way around it, right? I was also one of those people who believed this. There is a way out of this and it really is as simple as it sounds.

Be a mono-tasker and not a multi-tasker. It actually means getting the same number of tasks done but tackling them one at a time.

Now, if you are someone who believes that you can multitask just as efficiently as doing a single task one at a time, I have a quick test for you:

This is a test I learned about when I was reading up on ‘multitasking’ and I came across Dave Crenshaw’s talk. Alright, let’s take a pen and paper!

1. Draw two horizontal lines on the paper. Now, I want you to time yourself when you perform point 1 and point 2.
2. Above the first line, write “ I am a great multi-tasker”
3. On the second line write the numbers 1–20 like this:

“1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20”

Awesome, so how much time did that take? 20–25 seconds?

Now, let us multi-task and see if we can do this with the same efficiency. Ready?

Flip your paper and draw the same two horizontal lines. You have to write the same thing as before but in a different way this time. And, of course, time yourself as you perform the following:

Take one alphabet and then switch to the second line and write one number as done before, in the first exercise. For example, you wrote “I” on the first line and then wrote the number “1” below, then you wrote “a”, then you wrote “2” in the second line, and so on.

E.g. See the image below

How much time did that take?

Were you able to complete it faster?

With the same handwriting? With the same ease?

I bet you did not. And I bet you even got confused and frustrated at times when you needed to actually rethink what the next letter or the next number had to be.

This is called switch tasking and it’s not recommended. Now, these were just two things. Imagine your brain trying to piece together several things at once! Well, it so happens that all of us have a capacity for the “number of things” that we can think about at once. It’s called working memory.

A Working Memory is different from short-term memory. It’s like a temporary memory space where you can hold 2–3 things in order to manipulate and use them for a task. Imagine you referring to a sheet, searching for three names, and then taking a pen and writing those three names down from memory.

Now, what happens is that working memory has limited space, as was mentioned before. So when you are working on different things, you overload your working memory. This results in something called cognitive overloading of your working memory. It happens when you don’t focus on one thing for an extended period of time.

Some processes, as a result, get short-circuited because they need the information to be filtered out rather than adding more and more information.

That’s why we need to focus on one thing at a time. Be a mono-tasker and not a multi-tasker.

And that’s the solution. Take one task at a time where you will be able to focus better, not overload your brain, and stress out a bit less.

Here are a few tips that you can start implementing today:

1. Start your day with a checklist of all the things you need to do. You don’t need to use up your working and short-term memory for this, and you feel at peace because it’s documented.
2. Allot a time for the task you wrote above, whenever it’s possible.
3. Pause notifications when performing an important task. Be it your phone, messenger apps on your phone as well. This will help you to focus better and quit the urge to look at a new message, which in turn will drag you to a task you were not doing in the first place!
4. Avoid the urge to constantly switch between tasks. This will wear you down quickly. Complete what you are doing, and then only reply to that email. (Unless it’s very very urgent, finish that off first)

I hope this helps! Happy Monotasking!

Also, check out the video below too!