WHAT IS MULTITASKING?
Multitasking is basically doing more than one task at the same time. Each and every one of us multitasked whether consciously or unconsciously. You’re singing while taking a bath? that’s multitasking. Listening to music while doing any household chores? that is multitasking. Munching snacks while reading this blog? that is basically multitasking. But these examples are those types of multitasking that we have mastered over the years of our existence and that we can do unconsciously without compromising anything between both tasks. However, not all jobs are this simple that we could easily master doing it without compromising anything if we do it together with other tasks.
As a Quality Auditor working in a BPO industry, it is very common to see people praising those agents who were able to multitask and do more than their normal capacity. People who were up to the numbers of their completion only and people who were even forcing others to do more than the day to day target, forgetting that there is a standard handling time for each task that has been studied and implemented, just to have a bigger number of completed transactions. But what I observe the most when we always do multitasking or even forcing to multitask is we compromise the quality of our work.
HOW MULTITASKING COULD ACTUALLY KILL YOUR PRODUCTIVITY?
Multitasking is not really the best thing to do to work efficiently. It is like forcing your strength, energy and attention to be divided into different jobs. And anything divided will not help in giving great results.
When you tried to search for the negative effects of multitasking, you will probably see hundreds of articles and studies about its negative effects. And there is always one common denominator between those articles: the most affected organ in our body when we multitask is our brain.
Brain is one of the most essential parts of our body. Everything we do, every movement of our body consciously or unconsciously are housed inside our brain. And our brain is the main control of our physical lives. When we multitask, we are exhausting our brain, and just like when our body is exhausted, we will not be able to function well.
DOES MULTITASKING WILL MAKE US PRODUCTIVE?
This is the most common belief that engages people to multitask. Another description of multitasking is performing two or more tasks simultaneously or switching back and forth from one thing to another. Given the definition, it will instantly make us believe that multitasking does really help us to be productive because we are saving time by doing two or more tasks at the same time. But, is that really what multitasking does to our job?
Inside our brain, we have this so called Executive Function. Executive Function is a set of mental skills that help us get things done. Some researchers believed that executive function has two stages: Goal Shifting (deciding to do one thing instead of another) and Role Activation (changing from the rules of previous task to the rules of new task). And switching task will make us go through these stages over and over again that would probably cost us a seconds of our time as compared to focusing on one task at a time.
One study by Clifford Nass of Stanford University also found out that multitasking is destroying our cognitive processes. Cognition is the process of acquiring and understanding through our thoughts, experiences and senses. The study revealed that heavy multitasker is worst at sorting out relevant from irrelevant information. They also found out that even though the heavy multitasker is focusing on a single task, their brains were less effective and efficient. Thus, heavy multitasker’s thinking is not effective especially for those job that requires deep thoughts. Moreover, multitasking could also lead to over stimulation of our brain function that could lead us to a higher stress level. And an increase in stress level could also affect our health. Additionally, molecular biologists’ John Medina, author of Brain Rules (2008) also said that, “individuals that multitask, experience a 40% drop in productivity and they take 50% longer to accomplish a single task while making up to 50% more errors than workers who focus on a single task at a time”.
WAYS ON HOW TO AVOID MULTITASKING?
1. Do one thing at a time.
Create a checklist
Checklists are a list of items or things that needs to be done or points to be considered. It will also serve as your reminder in your everyday task and it could help you to avoid missing one task for a day of work.
Before you start your day or your work, list out all the things that you needed to accomplish for that day. List it down in your desktop notepad or phone notepad or in your notebook/planner that you can carry or you can easily see while doing your work.
Identify the important and/or urgent tasks.
We often confuse urgent and important task but those two types of task are different to one another.
Urgent tasks are those tasks that requires our immediate attention. Our to-do’s that shouts “now!” that put us in a reactive mode. This kind of task are not always those task that could really help us meet our goal. More so often, these are the tasks that are not really helping us at all, instead, these are the task that will just push us to help other people.
Important tasks are those tasks that really contribute to our goal or long term mission. Sometimes, important tasks are also urgent but usually they are not. Important task puts us in a responsive mode that help us to remain calm and rational.
How are we going to identify which types of tasks are we going to put in the top most of our checklist?
There is a tool invented by the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, which we may call Eisenhower Matrix, also referred to as Urgent-Important Matrix. This matrix could help as in deciding which task to be prioritized first in terms of its urgency or importance.
The 1st quadrant is the DO FIRST tasks because these are the tasks that are important to your life or long term goal and needs to be done as soon as possible (ex. Email for new business opportunity that requires immediate action).
The 2nd quadrant is the SCHEDULE tasks because these are the tasks that are important but less urgent. These are the task that we have to put in our calendar to make sure the accomplishment of these tasks (ex. Taking a class to improve a skill).
The 3rd quadrant is the DELEGATE tasks because these are the tasks that are less important to you but are still pretty urgent. Delegate because if your time is not enough, you may assign someone to do the job instead (ex. Co-worker asking for your help).
The 4th quadrant is the DON’T DO tasks because these are the tasks that are not urgent and does not contribute to the fulfillment of your goal at all (ex. Surfing the internet without a reason).
Don’t start one task without finishing the first one.
Now that you were able to identify which tasks should be in your top most part of your checklist, make sure that you complete those tasks first and never ever start doing another task without marking the first one as complete.
2. Remove Destruction
Put down your gadgets
Our cellphones, though helpful and slowly becoming a necessity nowadays, are often the most convenient destruction that we often commit in our daily lives. Turning our cellphone and any other gadgets off could help us be more focused on our work and avoid forcing to think of different things at the same time.
Eliminate Interruptions
Turning off your email notification if possible.
Turning off your phone or at least put them in silent mode.
Go to a place or a room that are less noisy and closed the door if needed.
These are just some examples of eliminating interruption that could help us to be more focused on our tasks.
3. Seek Help
If our time is not enough with all the tasks that are on hand, seeking help is not as dangerous as missing our deadline or providing a service or a product with poor quality. Business owners and employees are the most common victims of exhaustion and stress due to multitasking because they tend to be more on hand with their businesses or job and they are very much eager in meeting their goal which is making their business or career successful. Being on hand does not necessarily mean doing it all on your own. And as we discovered from Eisenhower’s Decision Matrix, there are tasks that we could delegate to lessen the burden of doing it all alone.
In the world of modern technology nowadays, everything could be found inside the internet. Even a friend that could help you with your burden could be found inside the web.
Freelancers are everywhere waiting for you realized that you do need help. There are freelancers that provides different kinds of services depending on your needs or your business’ needs.
DO LESS, ACCOMPLISH MORE!
If you want to learn more about some of the services that a freelancer could offer,
You don’t have to do it all by yourself and exhaust your brain. Use our time wisely.
Your friendly virtual partner is always here ready to help.
Resources:
"10 Real Risk in Multi-tasking, to Mind and Body"
"How Multitasking Affects Productivity and Health"
"What is Executive Function"
"What is Cognition"
"The negative effects of multitasking in the workplace"
“Introducing the Eisenhower Matrix”