Have you ever got to the end of the day and wondered what you’ve achieved? Have you ever found yourself staring at your screen with tons to tabs open on your web browser? Have you ever been halfway through a task and found yourself with your phone in your hand looking up something completely unrelated?
Good your human. I think we can relate to all of the above at some point.
However, there is something we all need to know. And that is that multi-tasking is a fallacy.
Now hopefully that’s not the first time you’ve heard this – and if you haven’t you’re in for a treat. But even if you have, I bet you still find yourself in some of the situations I named above.
What’s multi-tasking?
It’s essentially doing more than one task at once. And if we dig in most of us think we’re pretty adept at it.
You might be making dinner while checking your emails at the same time. Whoops, that sauce you’re lovingly preparing is now stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Or in the middle of writing a blog post, when you suddenly remember we wanted to post something on Instagram stories and stop writing and go off and post the story and then come back to the writing.
Or you are talking on your telephone and crossing the road and before you know it you’ve inadvertently stepped into oncoming traffic.
Now some of these examples have an obvious negative, the food is ruined or you’ve just got run over. But what about the middle example? It seems harmless enough. But here’s the rub, it’s not.
What has science got to say?
Research at Stanford University has found that not only is multi-tasking less productive, but it can also damage your brain and your career!
Pretty strong stuff!
And they discovered that people who prided themselves on their multitasking abilities and their skills at doing more than one thing at once were actually worse at multitasking than people who concentrated on doing one thing at a time.
To be honest, I just had to stop writing this for a second to stroke my cat Donald, who jumped up on my lap. It really is difficult doing two things at once!
Our brains can only focus on one thing at a time. So each time we make a switch it takes time for our brain to re-focus on the initial task.
So take the example that you’re in the middle of writing a blog post and then you switch to post on social media and then switch back to the blog. It may seem fine. But you’re actually losing time. It takes time for your brain to re-focus back on the blog post.
And if you do that several, maybe even hundreds of times a day, your focus is all over the place and you’re stressing your brain out asking it to do too many things.
Your brain can also do 2 tasks at once like cooking and emailing, but it generally will do most of them badly. Hence the slightly burnt pasta sauce you’ve just made.
Research at the University of London also found it lowers your IQ. Multi-tasking literally makes you less intelligent. Multi-tasking men saw their IQs lower to the average of an 8-year-old child.
How we can we re-train our brains to stop multi-tasking?
The first thing is to know it is a myth. We’re told these lies like women are better at multi-tasking – no. No-one is good at multi-tasking!
And then give your brain a break and focus on one thing at a time.
Easier said than done.
One of the simplest things you can do is put your phone away. If you’re listening to a seminar or Ted lecture or TV or talking to your children, or trying to go to sleep, or driving, or cooking, put your phone away! In another room if possible.
The next thing you can do is plan your day out, so there’s allotted time for all your tasks, including checking emails a couple of times a day and using social media.
And then focus. If you’re writing a blog post, creating a product, editing your website, create a space so there are no distractions and block out time so you can do the task.
And make sure that when you’re done with a tab on your web browser, close it.
Make your focus a habit. Because remember if you multi-task you’ll be reducing your IQ to an average 8-year-old and you’ll be wasting precious time!
debbiedooodah is founded by Debbie Clarke, an award-winning yellow obsessed mindset & marketing coach helping people build businesses they love https://debbiedooodah.co.uk/business-coach
