The Myth of Multitasking: How Doing It All Gets Nothing Done
Published on - August 21st, 2008 (by J.D. Roth) Multitasking has killed my productivity. At this moment, on this computer, I have:
- Five open browser windows with a total of 59 open tabs (in Safari)
- 79 open text documents (in BBEdit) — I am not joking
- 14 open images (in Photoshop)
- 55 unread messages in my mailbox (and 48 additional unread Get Rich Slowly comments)
- Three open chat sessions
- Seven open word processing documents (in Microsoft Word)
- And ten other open applications
That’s 227 discrete tasks awaiting my attention. That doesn’t count the dozen or so books submitted for review, the eight unread personal finance magazines, and the pile of papers spilling onto the floor.
Do you know how many tasks I can focus on at a time? Only one.
And do you know how productive I am because I try to do so much at once? Not very. By trying to do it all at once, I get very little done. According to author David Crenshaw, I have bought into The Myth of Multitasking.
The Myth of Multitasking
Multitasking is a misnomer, Crenshaw argues in his new book. In fact, he says, multitasking is a lie. No — multitasking is worse than a lie. Crenshaw writes:
When most people refer to multitasking, they are really talking about switchtasking. No matter how they do it, switching rapidly between two things is just not very efficient or effective.
His book contains a marvelous exercise with which readers can prove to themselves that this is actually the case, that “switchtasking” takes longer than actually doing one thing at a time. In “The Autumn of the Multitaskers” (from the November 2007 issue of The Atlantic), Walter Kirn also wrote about this phenomenon:
The great irony of multitasking [is] that its overall goal, getting more done in less time, turns out to be chimerical. In reality, multitasking slows our thinking…A brain attempting to perform two tasks simultaneously will, because of all the back-and-forth stress, exhibit a substantial lag in information processing.
Multitasking — or switchtasking — makes us less productive, costs us time, and generally leads to the feeling that we’ll never catch up.
In search of lost time
Crenshaw’s book suggests some tips for overcoming multitasking in the workplace. In addition, his website offers three “beginning steps” to help slow down switchtasking in your life:
- Take control of technology. Make space for yourself. Turn off your cell phone. Close your e-mail and chat programs. Shut the door to your office. Or, if you’re like me, learn to deal with one browser tab or one document at a time.
- Schedule what can be scheduled. To minimize interruptions and mindless switchtasking, schedule whatever you can. Learn to use a calendar to schedule meetings with people so that you can give them your full attention. Set aside specific times each day to check your voicemail and email. (This is a technique that Tim Ferriss preaches in The 4-Hour Workweek.)
- Focus on the person. When you deal with other people, be in the moment. Do not divide your attention between the conversation and another task. Be an active part of the conversation. Listen. Take care of everything before moving on.
The Myth of Multitasking is a short book that conveys a single, critical idea: to do two things at once is to do neither. While I think this book is excellent, and while it was exactly what I needed to read at this point in my life, I would not be willing to purchase it for the $20 cover price. It’s well worth a trip to the library, though. (And it might make a good gift for a boss or spouse or a co-worker.)
On the other hand, if Crenshaw’s book really can make me more productive, then it’s worth $20 and much, much more.
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Did anyone want to share the results of the online test? My first test was a 140 and the second a 92 yet I felt more stress on the second test. What does that mean?
I too am shocked that people have so many tabs open. I thought I was bad with 3 different browsers and maybe 10 – 15 tabs open at the same time.
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It sounds like a lot of confusion over words! I think the point is that the brain cannot actually focus on two different things that require simultaneous attention. You are not driving and talking on the phone at the same time – you are switching back and forth constantly between the two activities. This explains why talking on the phone is correlated to more car crashes.
If something doesn’t require your brain’s attention, then you can potentially do two things at once. But I think we’ve all heard the jokes about the mother who puts the cantaloupe in the diaper and the baby in the fridge…
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I have noticed that I do not multitask well…. well, let me rephrase… i multitask well, I’m just not productive when I do multitask. My computer looks quite a bit like yours, with tons of tabs open… instead of tabs i just make my bookmark obscenely big (about 6-7 lines). I have to sit down and waste time sorting everything out… seeing what photoshop images i NEED open, which tabs i can close, which word documents i can close. It’s ridiculous.
I have recently decided to buckle down and focus on 1 or two things at max,and I have been way more productive when I have done that. Thanks for reaffirming me.
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Two different people mentioned GTD. “Getting things done” by David Allen. It too has the goal of getting everything off your mind so that it can focus on one thing.
I have read the book and tried to put much of it in practice. Although I still struggle at times, I think David Allen’s concepts are true. Whenever I do make the lists and do the mindsweep, etc, I find my self much more relaxed and on top of things.
I highly recommend it to everyone and have given it away as gifts.
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The Secret Pulse of Time is a fascinating read. In addition to explaining how we process time at a biological level, it shows at a more scientific level why multitasking can’t be efficient. The author is Klein, I believe. Excellent popular science.
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It’s very tempting to multitask all the time. I find myself doing it a lot. I think that while I am browsing the internet than I am more likely to do it, but I can focus better when I am writing something important. I think many people would easily fall into the trap of thinking that the more they do then the more that gets done. It depends on the task. I think I am a bit more productive when I am getting writer’s block and trying to do a few things. But if I don’t have to be creative then one thing at a time works better. It is a process to know what works well sometimes
Philip Lilly
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while I agree that switchtasking is unproductive, I will say that true multitasking is something to put time and effort into achieving. The problem, as you say is true that you cannot concentrate on two things at once, so multitasking requires that all but of the tasks to require no thought. When I was a teacher, and now as a stay at home mom, there are ways to multitask because you have a mix of mindfull and mindless tasks. Straightening your classroom while calling parents. Turning cleaning up into a counting game with a toddler. Calling people with a screaming baby, sorry but that is almost unavoidable. Babies scream when you are on the phone. Its a fact of life, and other more important tasks, like napping take priority over phonecalls during naptime. For computer job types you don’t end up with any really mindless tasks so you have to think outside the work box. How about tredmills or stationary bikes under your desk?
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I agree that multitasking makes more productive is truly a myth. Having more technology gives the illusion that you are doing more and being more productive while being on IM, email, and several applications at a time.
Most of the time I am aware when I am multitasking and can pull myself away, other times, I do get swept away.
As my mother says, “Focus, baby, don’t scatter your energy.”
Thanks for providing the facts to support what I know to be true, multitasking makes you more productive – is truly a myth.
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I could not agree more. Although I often fall victim to the multitasking way of life, I do much better when I close down all the tabs in my browser, and keep only one program running at once.
That’s why traditional pen and paper is so good for my writing: it forces me to do just one thing, and that’s writing. Or at least thinking about writing.
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Eliminating bad multi-tasking is a key element of the Critical Chain Project Management discipline (CCPM – for more see Goldratt’s book Critical Chain). Just like people, organizations multi-task because they mistake activity for productivity. The goal isn’t to do lot’s of things – it’s to accomplish the important things.
By the way, someone earlier in this thread mentioned 80/20 for project planning. 80/20 applies to selecting between unrelated projects – 20% will deliver 80% of the benefit. But this does not apply to the steps in a project! 80% of the projects benefit doesn’t come from completing 20% of the activities. If you don’t complete 100% of the project you probably won’t see any benefit.
Also, traditional project management approaches often end up with the last 10% of the project taking as much time as the first 90% because people put off the hardest 10% of activiteis until the end.
In case you’re interested in why this is the case – 80/20 is a statistics thing and it only applies to independent events. The steps in a project are not independent, but are dependent series of links. To use the chain analogy, 80% of the strength doesn’t come from 20% of the links. In fact, the strength depends on the weakest link.
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Unfortunately, as support staff (Administrative/Executive Assistant; Project Coordinator) you have to multitask or find yourself without a job because you’ll be labeled as incompetent.
I can see how it damaging and exhausting for me though. When I’m working at home on my business, though I work hard, I dont feel the energy drain my day-job gives.
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I find that a paper to-do list, a paper planner, and knowing my “first actions” are my friends.
I can, in fact, do several things at once and do them well. It’s a combination of switch-tasking (at about 1-hour intervals) and background tasking.
I find that as long as I look at my to-do list each day and figure out each task’s first action, I’m good to go.
As a photographer, writer, and mixed media artist WITH a full-time, unrelated day job, this works well for me. I actually manage to be very productive.
The First Actions and paper to-do list are key, however.
I agree that one can take on too much at one time and that quick switch-tasking is probably not productive.
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