More Multi-Tasking Myths

As expected, Part 1 of this post rankled a few of you, but many others agreed.

According to author and New York Times business columnist, Phyllis Korkki, you’re far better off “mono-tasking” than trying to fool yourself into thinking your brain is a true multi-processing machine. It’s not just a matter of being more productivity when you take on one task at a time, but being more creative.

For her recent article series about making the most of your workday, Korkki interviewed a number of neuroscientists and productivity experts. One key takeaway: “Truly innovative thinking arises when we allow our brains to follow a logical path of associated thoughts and ideas, and this is more likely when we can focus on a single mental pathway for an extended period.” Earl K. Miller, a neuroscience professor at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, put it more bluntly: “Multitasking is not humanly possible!”

Miller, one of several experts interviewed by Korkki, said you tend to make more mistakes when you multi-task. Sounds reasonable, but why? According to Miller, that’s because when you “toggle” back and forth from task to task, “the neural networks of your brain must backtrack to figure out where they left off and then reconfigure. That extra activity causes you to slow down, and errors become more likely,” explained Miller.

Our take--It would help if the generations took the time to understand each other’s preferred speed of information gathering and critical thinking. For instance, seasoned professionals should understand that Millennials may be paying closer attention than you think even when the have their cell phones out. Did it ever occur to you that the 20-something in the conference room is taking notes on his cellphone, not checking Facebook and Twitter every five minutes? On the flip side, young folks should understand they don’t have a monopoly on innovation. Turns out middle-age folks (46-60) have obtained the lion’s share of the patents, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

To the best of your ability, Korkki recommended setting up a work environment that encourages you to perform just one single task at a time. While she and other experts don’t think it’s possible for most people to block off hours at a time for a single task, Korkki said that even committing yourself to monotask for five minutes can yield productivity benefits.

From personal experience, I remember my old boss calling it “time boxing” and my fourth grade teacher repeatedly shouted at us to give her our “undivided attention.” Maybe she was on to something.

A 2014 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that interruptions as brief as two to three seconds were enough to double the number of errors participants made in an assigned task.

Still skeptical? Korkki recommended making incremental changes like these:

1. Remove temptation: Actively resist the urge to check unrelated social media while you are working on a task. Some workers may need to go so far as to install anti-distraction programs like SelfControl, Freedom, StayFocusd and Anti-Social, which block access to the most addictive parts of the internet for specified periods.

2. Work on just one screen: Put away your cellphone and turn off your second monitor.

3. Move: If you find yourself losing focus – reading the same sentence over and over or if your mind continually wanders off topic – get up and briefly walk around, Dr. Miller said. A brief walk around your office can lift your mood, reduce hunger and help you refocus.

Here at HB Publishing, you can tell who the creatives are…. We’re the ones always getting up every hour to walk around the office, shoot the breeze in the coffee room or stepping outside for a few minutes of fresh air—on the other size of the plaza from the smokers.

4. Work in intervals: Set a timer for five or 10 minutes and commit to focusing on your assignment for that amount of time. Then allow yourself a minute of distraction, as long as you get back on your task for another five or 10 minutes.

A number of us here at HB are endurance athletes. Interval training—hard bursts of all out focus followed by pre-set rest periods and then hard burst of all out focus again—is part of our DNA. We also use the 5-4-1 principal. Here’s how it works: After a good mental warmup, you go hard at your desk for 5 hours, followed by a long break of at least 60 minutes (the average “lunch break” here at HB is closer to 90). After that 60-90 minute break, you hit it hard again for 4 hours, then take another long break, resuming with 1 hour of hard focus and recap time to gather up the loose ends from your day and to prepare for the next day. Many find it useful to break up the 5-4-1 work intervals into morning, afternoon, and post-dinner time.

Works for us.

*** New Insta Poll: How many times per month are you communicating with clients? Early results show that about half of you aren’t communicating with your clients often enough. See how you stack up to your peers (Our latest Insta Poll is on the right side of our home page). Maybe it’s time you put the devices down and picked up the old fashioned phone a little more.

 

Conclusion

We know many of you can’t get away with a 90-minute lunch break, but when you’re paid to use your brain more than your brawn, it makes sense to put in the work when your brain is firing on all cylinders. As Korkki notes, “not everyone gets there the same way. It’s up to you to figure out when you are most efficient and when you’re not.”

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TAGS  Journal of Experimental Psychology, Dr. Earl Miller, Phyllis Korkki, multi-tasking is a myth 

Why Multi-Tasking Is a Myth, Part 1

Thomas Edison famously said, “There is no substitute for hard work.” Most of you on this distribution list already know that. You are among the hardest working people we know and have probably never been called slackers. You’ve paid your dues, you’ve kept your nose to the grindstone and burned plenty of midnight oil to get to where you are today.  Congrats on that.

 

You can’t possibly log or bill any more hours than you are currently working, but deep down you sense something’s missing, right? You know you could be getting home from the office a little earlier and feeling less stress in the evenings and on weekends. You know you could be spending more quality time with your friends, family and spouse—without making any less money. But how?

The solution doesn’t require you to clone yourself or consistently hit the lottery. You just need a better understanding of what makes you tick at work.

Step 1—Realize that no two people are the same when it comes to personal productivity. So don’t look for a magic “system” or training aid to give you a 10x boost in what you already get done in a day. It’s a personal challenge that only you can solve.

Step 2—There are probably times of the day or week in which you find that you’re more productive than others. Not sure? Try going over you daily time logs, journals, diaries, CRM system or any other places in which you keep track of your work activities for clues.

The main thing is to know when you are most likely to be “in the zone” and schedule you’re heaviest mental lifting for those times. Many productivity experts suggest doing your toughest tasks of the day, first thing in the morning. But, not everyone’s a morning person. Others do their best thinking late at night, when everyone else is asleep and your household, phone and mobile devices are quiet. Others need to clear their desks and heads mentally in the morning and use the afternoon to hit it hard—often right after a vigorous walk or workout during lunch. Some don’t even bother with high-agenda items on Mondays and Fridays when they’re likely to be distracted or exhausted and use the middle days of the week to hit their stride.

Again, the key is to know when you’re most likely to be “in the zone” which is increasingly limited these days. Case in point: Four out of five of you (78%) who responded to our recent InstaPoll said that you your work life has become more complex than it was five years ago.

In response, it’s tempting to try to cram more into the day and juggle as many responsibilities and assignments as you can. Multi-tasking has become a badge of honor in many circles. IT SHOULDN’T BE!

Multi-tasking increases errors and impedes creativity

Many professionals think they can juggle multiple projects, responsibilities and tasks simultaneously. They think they can finish a presentation while booking cross-country flights and taking urgent calls from frantic clients all at the same time. In reality, experts say, you’re not really multi-tasking as much as you are switching back and forth very quickly from one activity to another.

Unfortunately, with all that rapid-fire switching, you’re not doing any of your activities particularly well. That’s because your brain is working extra hard to handle multiple thoughts simultaneously. It’s like what happens when you have too many windows open on your PC or too many apps running on your phone.

As Dr. Matthew MacKinnon explained in Psychology Today, “science has consistently shown that the human brain can only sustain attention on one item at a time. Our overestimation of our attentional capacity stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of multitasking and of the human attentional system as a whole,” added MacKinnon.

New York Times columnist, Phyllis Korkki recently wrote that “Your ability to get things done depends on how well you can focus on one task at a time, whether it’s for five minutes or an hour.”

When you multitask, experts say you tend to make more mistakes. Earl K. Miller, a neuroscience professor at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory argues that when you toggle back and forth between tasks, “the neural networks of your brain must backtrack to figure out where they left off and then reconfigure.” Miller, who was interviewed for Korkki’s article series, said the extra brain activity causes you to slow down and errors become more likely. That’s why Miller believes people are much more efficient if they mono-task.

According to Miller, the brain is like a muscle that becomes stronger with use and weaker when not challenged. “As with physical exercise, the more we strengthen our mental connections by focusing on one task to the exclusion of all others, the better we can perform,” added Miller.

Conclusion

As far back as the 1930s, Allan F. Mogensen, the creator of work simplification, coined the phrase "work smarter, not harder." Sorry multi-taskers, but that means doing one thing well at a time, not doing many things half-ass all day long. Next week we’ll look at ways to prevent you from falling into the multi-tasking trap.

Have a good weekend. HB

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TAGS: Mutli-tasking unrealistic, Matthew MacKinnon, Phyllis Korkki, Allan F. Mogensen