Multitasking is a Myth

Written on June 15, 2010 by Garland Coulson

We see it all the time…

A driver talking on their cellphone, kids doing homework with music playing, people talking to friends with a TV playing in the background.

It is called multitasking – doing more than one thing at a time.  And, with our busy world, it seems to be a critical skill.

Or is it?  Does multitasking ever work?  Can you really do more than one thing at a time effectively?

The answer is a resounding NO!  Scientific studies have shown that no matter how good you THINK you are at multitasking, you are much MORE effective when you focus on only one thing at time.

In test after test, people who try to juggle many flows of information fail at focus tests while their low-multitasking peers succeed.

So what does this mean?  Well, if you reorganize how you work or study to remove multitasking, you will greatly improve your chances of success.

Here are three ways to minimize multitasking and maximize your attention and focus.

1.  Distraction Free Time: Set aside no-distraction time to work on critical projects.  Set aside a block of time, even as small as 1/2 hour or an hour to work on a project.  During this time, turn off the phone, cell phone and disable all your computer alerts from places like email, Skype, etc.  I attribute my success to working on large projects in small, uninterrupted 1 hour blocks.

2.  Email: That little “bleep” that happens whenever you get email is a constant temptation to interrupt what you are doing to see what the new email is about.  I check and reply to my email first thing in the morning and then check again after lunch.  I reply to every email within 1 business day but I only check it twice per day and reply once per day.

3.  Music: Many of us like to listen to music while we work and our kids almost always have music on when they study.  So how does music affect your focus and work?  While the good news from scientific studies is that some kinds of music have a huge positive effect on focus.  Music with an easy beat with light melodies positively affect your ability to focus.  Baroque, in particular, has been proven to have a major positive effect.  However, music with lyrics generally hurt your focus as you are trying to work and listen to words at the same time.  So the choice of music is critical.

It has proven that multitasking doesn’t work.  We can either do many things poorly or a few things well.  You choose.

Garland Coulson, “The EBusiness Tutor”

Garland Coulson. "The EBusiness Tutor" is an Internet Marketing Speaker, Internet Mentor and Entrepreneur who teaches beginners how to succeed online.

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