When was the last time you gave 100% of your attention to, well, anything? Even now as I’m ‘focusing’ on writing, I have 9 open browser tabs, 2 random note docs, and a desktop filled with files, folders, and documents competing for my attention. All this despite the fact I’m trying to practice ‘single-tasking’—aka doing one thing at a time.
It’s human nature to try and do multiple things at once. And as expectations rise and deadlines get tighter, multitasking seems like our only option.
But here’s the problem: Multitasking is a myth.
What feels like doing multiple tasks at a time is actually our brain frantically switching back and forth. And each of those switches takes a toll with researchers saying you lose 20% of your overall productivity for each task you try to take on at once!
On the other hand, single-tasking is proven to help you get tasks done quicker and at a higher quality than trying to do multiple things at once.
The problem: The modern workplace makes single-tasking almost impossible
Most people said their biggest challenges to finishing their daily tasks were:
Having too much work to do Not having clear priorities Spending too much time checking emails and chat Put those three factors together and you’ve got the essential elements of multitasking.
The more you multitask, the worse you get at finishing your work, which means you have more to do, which makes you more likely to keep multitasking to do it all. And on and on and on…
To break out of this cycle, you need to understand that focusing on one thing at a time is a superpower.
We will discuss about how to break out from multitasking behavior.