Ever find yourself catching up with emails while listening to a client or colleague on the phone? Or posting on your social media accounts as you try to switch off from your day and watch a movie?
Multitasking seems to have become the norm in this ‘always on’ culture as we strive to outperform each other. Praise for people’s ability to do it effectively can ring out around the PDR time (personal development review) – and is often writ large on CVs where job applicants hope to make their mark as the standout candidate for a job.
But to all of that, I say ‘enough, it’s not big and it’s not clever’.
Firstly, multitasking is a myth according to scientists. The brain cannot actually tackle a whole host of instructions at any one time, especially if they relate to a similar style of activity such as communication (emails while on the phone a case in point). In fact, when we think we are multitasking, what we’re actually doing is switching quickly between a series of singular tasks, turning our attention from one to the other in quick succession.
And because of that, we’re not giving any of those tasks our undivided attention, hence we’re underperforming in all of them. So what set out to be a time saving ploy ends up taking us longer to complete effectively.
Yes, you interpreted that right – multitasking by whatever name reduces our performance and productivity rates. I know this from bitter personal experience when I forgot this maxim and had a very close call with a nervous breakdown recently.
But don’t worry, all is not lost in this hectic world we’re trying our best to navigate and lead others.
Those of you who have been closely following my blog in recent weeks will realise there’s something of a golden thread running through them at the moment…effective time management and delegation can help you unburden yourself of many of the pressures which forced you down the so-called multitasking route in the first place. I had to re-assess these in my own work and personal life before I could recover.
In a nutshell – and so you don’t have to try and juggle reading those blogs while absorbing this one (!) – it’s OK to say ‘no’ sometimes, accept there are colleagues around you who can be trusted to perform certain tasks on your behalf far better than you ever could and don’t compromise on your principles when allocating your precious time.
Focus on completing individual tasks effectively and efficiently before moving on to the next.