Multitasking Is A Myth

Did you know that multitasking is a myth?

There's an old joke that many have taken as #truth, which is that men can't multitask but women can.

Whilst there may be some studies where that is shown to be true, there are more studies that show that multitasking, no matter what your gender, is highly unproductive.

So even if us women are better at multitasking, it still doesn't mean that we're being at our most productive.

What we're really doing when trying to multitask is task switching. 

It's not that we're doing multiple tasks at the same time, we're switching between tasks at a rapid pace.

It's super inefficient.

Multiple tabs

You've probably heard that saying about having multiple tabs open in your brain? I'm guilty of this myself.

So I have to give myself a mantra when I find myself like switching from one thing to another. and then to another. 

I find that if I keep repeaing to myself two things:

1. Finish what you started

2. One thing at a time.

Those are my two mantras to keep myself from the inefficiency of working on too many tasks at once.  

Getting Things Done 

A tip from the book Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen is this; our brain is not a filing cabinet. Whenever a thought pops into your head, perhaps a task that you don't want to forget, immediately write it down.

That way, you can comfortably let it go from your head, knowing that it's recorded somewhere and you won't forget about it. 

It's important to have a system with this whereby you don't end up with multiple pieces of paper everywhere which are easily lost and are themselves a distraction. 

Whether it be a diary, a notebook, a digital planner, or an app on your phone, the key is to have these notes in one place, and then a set time of the day or week to review them, and to schedule a plan to complete them.

Another quick tip from GTD; if it's going to take less than 2 minutes, do it right away. If it's going to take longer, estimate the time it will take and schedule it into your calendar.

Turn off notifications

While I'm at it, let's talk about those annoying little notifications that keep popping up in the bottom right hand corner of your computer. You know the ones, for emails and messages.

Please turn them off.

They are sooo distracting and lead us again to inefficient work practices, switching our mind between the task we were working on and the notification, reducing productivity.

It's inefficient to multitask

So let's stop doing it.

One thing at a time, and finish what you started.