Multitasking is a myth

Modern technology is a wonderful thing when it works for us. However, when we become a slave to technology it can kill your productivity and cause you to lose hours each day.

Modern technology such as smartphones and tablets give us the illusion of being able to do multiple things at once. In theory, this should make us more productive. However, the brain cannot multitask on activities that require concentration. Obviously, we can do automatic things like walk and talk at the same time but we lack the ability to actively concentrate on two things at once. In John Medina’s book 'Brain Rules', he describes what happens in your brain when you are doing what we believe to be multitasking. He explains the 4 stages that take place when we get interrupted by a text message whilst typing out an email.

1) Shift alert: To write an email from scratch, blood quickly rushes to your anterior prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain works like a switchboard, alerting the brain that it's about to shift attention.

2) Rule activation for task #1: The brain sends a two-part message. The first part is a search query to find the neurons capable of doing the writing task. The second is to encode a command that will rouse the neurons. This is called 'rule activation’. It takes several tenths of a second. Now you begin to write your email.

3) Disengagement: As you are writing the email, a text message comes in. This is picked up by your sensory system by your ears if the notification is a sound, or by your skin if your phone is set to vibrate. The rules for texting are different from the rules for writing an email, therefore your brain must disengage from writing the email before you can respond to the text. For this the switchboard is consulted, alerting the brain that another shift in attention is about to happen.

4) Rule activation for task #2: Now the brain sends another two-part message, as before, but this time to activate the process of texting. Again, the first part is to find the neurons for completing the task and the second part is to activate them. Again this takes several tenths of a second to perform the switch.

This four-step sequence must occur every time you switch from one task to another. You have to go through the whole sequence and the steps must happen one after another. This is why you can't truly multitask.

What we are doing when think we are multitasking is actually switching our attention between tasks. It might be happening so quickly that, to us, it feels like we're doing two things simultaneously, but what we are actually doing is very quickly switching attention back and forth. This sequence has to happen every time we switch tasks and again when we switch back.

If it sounds exhausting, that’s because it is. This is also why a person who is interrupted takes 50% longer to complete a task and makes up to 50% more errors.

What can I do?

1) Switch off your notifications.  It's no exaggeration to say that smartphone notifications are one of the biggest threats to mental wellbeing. Being bombarded by too many can leave you feeling frazzled. My phone, like a lot of modern phones, has a 'do not disturb’ mode. It allows me to turn off my notifications but ensure any emergency calls or messages can still get through. It helps keep my mental bandwidth from being hijacked by notifications. If your phone doesn’t have such a setting then, you can download apps to manage this for you, or you can quite simply turn your notifications off. For some people, this might sound quite scary or undesirable but my challenge to you is to give it ago.

2) Email is another major drain on most people's time. Rather than try and answer all your emails in the morning, or as the notifications come in, try what some of the most successful business people I know do: Keep all your emails until the afternoon. Some people even put an automated response on their email explaining that all emails are read after 1 pm or after 5 pm. I usually scan my emails first thing for anything urgent and then leave the rest until later in the day. If you must check your emails more frequently do so only three times a day, urgent emails when you start work, others after lunch or at the end of the day.

3) You can do the same for voicemails too. Make sure your voicemail tells people when they can expect you to pick up your messages. Most people don't mind a reasonable delay their expectations are set correctly upfront.  

Why not set yourself a challenge:

Switch off your notifications for a day and see what difference it makes. You don't miss anywhere near as much as you think and it will allow more attention to be focused on the things that really matter.

What do you think?

Let me know your comments below or on the Dive Deeper Facebook page.