Imagine this: You’re driving to a new-to-you place. You dropped the address into your favorite map app and you’re diligently following the authoritative voice that’s chirping directions at you, turn by turn, mile by mile. Your favorite band is providing a soundtrack to your expedition. You’re tapping your fingers on the wheel and singing along. And then you leave the comfortable familiarity of the highway. You’re on back roads now in a community you’ve never been to before. You’re starting to realize that even the very specific commands of the GPS (“Turn right in 1000ft”) are starting to feel not detailed enough. Without really thinking about it, you reach over and turn down the volume on the music so you can concentrate on the road. Sound familiar?
On the surface, it sounds silly. Yet, the reality is this reflex to turn down our music (or pause a conversation) so we can focus on our driving makes sense. Whether we realize it or not, it is our own intuitive understanding that we aren’t built for multi-tasking. We can drive and listen to music when we’re comfortable with the route. When we need to really concentrate on our navigation, even the familiar notes of that song we’ve been rocking to for decades can be a distraction. We need to zero out the background noise and focus on the one thing that demands our full focus.
Multitasking isn’t a new concept. Nor, however, is the warning against embracing the myth of it. Philip Stanhope was the 4th Earl of Chesterfield who lived from 1694-1773. Among his many talents as a writer and a diplomat, he provided a wealth of quotes relating to productivity. Among them were wise words advising against multitasking, “There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.”
Chesterfield got it. When we split our focus, we hurt our productivity. Despite protestations to the contrary, the reality is we don’t get more done when we do more at once.
In a 2013 interview with NPR’s Ira Flatow, Dr Clifford Nass said, “…in our research, the people who say they’re the best at multitasking because they do it all the time. It’s a little like smoking, you know, saying, I smoke all the time, so smoking can’t be bad for me. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.” Nass, author of The Man Who Lied to His Laptop and professor of communication at Stanford University, explained that research on the topic of multitasking has consistently shown that the practice leads to a long list of deficits.
According to Nass’s research, those that regularly attempt to multitask alter the way their brain works and may experience these deficits even when they attempt to focus on a solo task. In the NPR interview he explained, “People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted.”
So, what’s the first step to getting back to basics and breaking the cycle of multitasking? Start by embracing the reality that you are not the rare gift to heightened productivity that is good at doing more than one thing at a time. Even as research proves time and time again that none of us multitask well, many of us (as much as 93%!) insist we’re the rare exception. Let go of the myth. Trying to juggle a full plate by splitting your attention is not the badge of honor we’ve made it out to be. Put the plate down.
Yes, we can walk & chew gum at the same time. We can because neither of those actions requires our full attention. However, the next time you’re hiking a new trail and find yourself at a literal crossroads needing to make a decision about the right next step, take a moment to notice what your jaw does. Do you stop chewing while you focus on the trail map? You might. Chewing gum is a fairly mindless act, of course, and so you may not. Your brain isn’t focusing on the movement of your jaw. You might, however, lower the volume on your playlist so the lyrics of your favorite song don’t pull your concentration from the directions you’re considering.
In other words, maybe background noise, petting your dog or cat, or sipping your water bottle isn’t going to pull away your focus from tasks you complete with regularity because these are autopilot tasks. Don’t let that lull you into thinking you multitask well. Your autopilot routine is just fine. It’s different.
Recognize that we really aren’t completing multiple tasks at one time. What we’re doing is switching between tasks in a specific time period. You aren’t really watching the latest bingeworthy program while simultaneously scrolling your Instagram feed, and answering that important email from your CEO. If you were trying to accomplish this feat, you’d likely miss that key moment in the show and double tap on a post you didn’t really mean to like, all while littering your response to your CEO with unfortunate typos.
Of course, the reality is we don’t split ourselves into doing three tasks at once. What we do is switch between tasks. You might divert your attention to the email, pausing your Insta perusal mid-scroll, and tuning out the television. The sound from the program becomes a din of garbled background noise until you pick up a keyword from your favorite character and your attention is pulled away from your typing for a moment. Your focus bounces from thing to thing as you give some measure of focus to one bit at a time. Of course, as Chesterfield said way back in 18th century, finishing the email is going to take us twice as long in this scenario because our switching to and fro will double the time needed to complete the task, rather than if we just paused the other distractions and gave that missive our full attention.
It’s not that your to-do list gets narrowed to one task. It’s that you tackle your list by devoting your full focus to one task at a time. You can plow through the list of things in front of you by giving each your full attention before turning to the next thing. This includes little side activities like checking your email throughout the day, or texting with your pals about dinner plans while sitting in a staff meeting, or dropping into your social media feeds to see what everyone else is up to while you’re hammering away at a new client proposal. If that’s your modus operandi, it’s time to make some changes. Set aside time for those tasks after you complete the thing you’re working on at this moment.
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