I read an article recently that blew my mind. It was about multitasking or actually about not multitasking because you see we actually don’t at all. It is not possible, a total myth! There is no such thing. Are you getting the point? Like me you may be initially sceptical. After all we all know that multitasking is one of those things that employers and job agencies prize. It is asked in interviews. If you can’t multitask they don’t want you. Turns out for every multi tasker these employers are hiring they should be hiring someone to check their work.
Of course I know there are some things we can do at the same time. We can walk while sipping a drink or watch TV while eating. But these are simple tasks. What we are talking about here are tasks that are high demand and require a deal of concentration or thinking.
You may think you can easily type up a report (or memo or paper or whatever) and not pause to take a phone call from a colleague about a meeting. But just think about usually happens in this instance. It may go something like this. You put down the phone and review the paragraph you just wrote. There might be a few spelling errors you have to correct or perhaps it does not quite sound right and you have to tinker with it or maybe it makes no sense whatsoever so you delete it and start again. The suddenly you think; ’what time did he say the meeting was? Was it 3? I think it was 3 or maybe it was 3:30?’ So you ring and double check the time joking to your colleague that you must be getting old to have forgotten. Ha ha!!
So how much times have you saved by multitasking? If you had in fact given your full attention to the phone call then gone back to your typing you would have in fact saved time. Instead you are convinced you have done two things at once and that you are really efficient.
The truth really is staring us in the face. If you want to do something well you have to concentrate on it. We all know that yet we insist on this multitasking being the be all and end all of an efficient person.
When I thought about writing this blog based on the one article I read I wondered how widely spread this idea was. Turns out it is gaining force. Google multitasking myth and there are numerous entries. Scientific reports and all matter of discussions about it. There are even books on the subject.
It really changed the way I thought about things. I thought I was a multi tasker. But thinking about it since reading this article I realised I am not really. I can do jobs well and quickly but I can’t effectively do two things at once. There is something to be said of course for someone who can effectively manage a huge workload of different tasks and do them quickly but this is not multitasking. There needs to be another word for it because even if we switch from one task to the next and back again we are still in effect only doing one thing at a time and that switch costs us time and energy. Far better for the compliment to be that one ‘singletasks’ then moves onto the next. Not quite as catchy I know… I need to work on that one!
Imagine for a second you are folding towels while chatting to a friend on the phone. Now this could well be one of those simple examples like watching TV and eating. They can be done at the same time. But then again think about it. During a difficult part of the conversation where you need to either listen closely or think about a response what are your hands doing? They are almost certainly running over the edge of the towel back and forth or smoothing out the towel as though you are lovingly stroking a pet or they could be fiddling with the label. They are not actively folding the towel. You have had to pause in the act of folding to think hard about what you are going to say.
It is little wonder that in the past more so then today it was considered very rude to do anything else while having a conversation with someone. It was well known there was an art in listening and doing something else meant you were not giving someone else your full attention. If you think you can fiddle on your phone while having a conversation with someone well think again and try to recall what it is you were talking about. People are quick to put it down to bad memory but chances are you would remember if you actually concentrated on listening
Of course women won’t be happy about this as supposedly multitasking is what we women do and men just cannot do. But perhaps we just prioritise better. If my hubby goes to make tea and toast chances are he makes the toast and then the tea. Whereas I would put the kettle on first as I know while that is boiling I can get together all the bits and pieces I need. Time it just right to put the toast on so everything is ready pretty much at the same time. Of course I have not really multi tasked as I have only done one thing at a time but I did them in an order that made sense for time management.
Then again if I chopped and changed about doing two very important things like different work projects it would be different. If I wrote a few sentences of this blog then flipped to another window and wrote a paragraph of a story I would be doing myself a disservice. My poor brain would have to keep snapping back into the world of the story, remember the characters and what they were doing and thinking, appreciate the change in tone and context and then flip back again. I may get both done by 12pm but will either be my best work? Chances are too if I did them separately I would still get them both finished by 12pm but just one after the other.
So what is the upshot of all this? Well personally I think we need to re-evaluate this whole nonsense of people being brilliant if they can do a number of things at once. Do something and do it well I say. We need to change the culture that requires people in the workplace to be like superman and think about what actually works best rather than what looks or sounds good.
Of course changing these things can be difficult. What would you do if you had a job interview tomorrow and you were asked if you were good at multitasking? Of course you could say no and explain that no one is and refer them to this blog or it might be better just to say yes and then go on to do your work brilliantly and your boss will never know you took care to do one thing at a time.
I will leave you then with wise words from the first century BC (why do we assume we get smarter as mankind ages?)
“To do two things at once is to do neither” - Publilius Syrus, Roman slave, first century B.C.
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