Talking on the phone while cooking, sending e-mails during meetings, texting while walking—multitasking has become an inseparable part of our life. While multitasking may seem like a good strategy to stay productive, nothing could be farther from the truth. When you juggle between two activities, it makes you less efficient, a Stanford study suggests. So in reality, you should avoid multitasking.
Researchers have discovered that “people who are bombarded with electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one task to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time.” Hence, avoid multitasking as much as you can because trying to concentrate on two things at once can impact your focus negatively and increase stress in life.
For instance, using a mobile phone, whether hand-held or hands-free, while driving is distracting and dangerous. It reduces your level of concentration and impairs your ability to make decisions. In most countries, it is illegal to text while driving as you switch back and forth from one thing to another, distracting you with each switch. In a workplace, this could negatively impact the way you perform and hamper the quality of work.
“Inevitably we find ourselves tackling too many things at the same time, spreading our focus so thin that nothing gets the attention it deserves. This is commonly referred to as ‘being busy.’ Being busy, however, is not the same thing as being productive,” says Ryder Carroll, author of the book, The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future.
This inability to concentrate on one thing can impact your life, both personally and professionally. So, instead of depending on multitasking, here are a few things you can do to stay productive.
Plan ahead and prioritise
If you want to avoid multitasking, learn to manage your tasks efficiently in a timely manner. One of the best ways to do it is to plan your day in advance. Prioritise the list of things that need to be done but before you start jotting them down, think of the demands of the various tasks by taking all the relevant details into account. This way, you will be able to give appropriate time to each task. Even if you can’t finish everything due to unexpected meetings or other emergencies, you’ll know what is left and what isn’t. You can take that up the very next day.
Free yourself from distractions
Whether you are working from home or office, you probably have to complete a lot of tasks on any given day. To work effectively, you need to create an environment that is free from as many distractions as possible—these include cell phones, television, e-mails, social media and face-to-face conversations. But the problem is that it is not always easy to recognise a distraction when you see one.
While scrolling through your social media feed certainly falls in the category of distraction, discussing projects with your colleagues and dealing with messages coming in your inbox are counted as part of any job today. And yet they steal your time and focus.
Multitasking can lead to reduced productivity, increased stress, and decreased overall quality of work.
Instead of multitasking, consider these alternatives, plan ahead and prioritise, free yourself from distractions, take regular breaks, focus on one thing at a time, divide your work into smaller tasks, and say no.
Focusing on one task at a time improves productivity by allowing you to channel your full attention and energy into that task. This enables you to complete it more accurately and efficiently.
This approach can boost your motivation and confidence as you achieve smaller milestones along the way, ultimately leading to a more efficient workflow.
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