I can’t count the number of times I’ve read that multitasking has now been shown to be both a bad idea and technically impossible. Since the heyday of multitasking, perhaps ten years ago, the practice of purposefully performing multiple tasks for the sake of productivity has been thoroughly debunked. Studies show that it makes us get less done, and that attempting to do it makes us perform poorly. While the term still lives on in practice (and as a skill listed on resumes), multitasking is truly a myth. Attempting to do it is counter-productive. This is because, while our brains are certainly multi-threaded processors, our consciousness is but one thread of that processor. We cannot think of more than one thing at a time. Similarly, we cannot experience two emotions at the same time. When we try to track multiple tasks and simultaneously work on them, we are just switching back and forth rapidly. But the studies show, there is a transaction cost when switching between tasks. And the cost is rather big. We certainly lose efficiency when we constantly change our focus. This has been measured. It is a fact.
One less obvious impact of multitasking is the reduction in “flow” that we would otherwise be experiencing when giving exclusive attention to a task. Flow can be described as the feeling of being locked into a task, concentrating on its execution, in a way where other thoughts, feeling, and even sensations are at bay. This usually occurs once we settle into a task. As a prerequisite for getting into a flow, we have mentally taken stock of the task, including all goals, constraints, thoughts on our approach, list of sub-tasks involved, and expectations about the outcome. Once these things are coalesced in the mind, we can then see the entirety of the task or project and go about executing. Because we have all the task’s “background information” in the forefront of the mind (I think of it as my mental working space), we are easily able to throw ourselves into the task in a skillful, proactive way. For example, we might work on the most important part, or the part on which the most other tasks depend, or the task which requires the most refinement. And because we are “dialed in,” we see connections to the project goals and between individual aspects and sub-tasks. This adds an aspect of creativity, of depth, and of spontaneity to the performance of the task. We are fully engrossed, and we have all our faculties and all available information at our disposal. We do our best.
No flow = no creativity
When we are switching tasks, we don’t have the ability to enter flow. This could be because our brain is playing catch-up after each switch, trying to get back to the place we were when we left. It makes sense. We are clearing our mental working space and reloading it over and over. Some details are left behind. We jump right back to the task before we settle back into it. We don’t see the big picture, and we don’t make connections and have the resulting “a-ha moments.” We just do the tasks as if they belong on a long list of uncategorized items, which is how we are treating them. We lose the context, and we don’t work to our potential, nor do we see the lost potential.
Transaction costs in time and memory
A recent study showed that when we try to multitask, the transaction cost of doing so goes beyond lost time. It seems the brain often stores things in the wrong boxes when multitasking, which means it can be packed away inefficiently, making recalling and using the information later inefficient. You might imagine this aspect of multitasking like reviewing boxes of keepsakes in your garage. If you get a single box down from the shelf, or a few similar boxes of items, it is pretty simple to keep track of what went where. When you are done looking through them, you pack the boxes right back up as you found them, neatly and perhaps organized a bit better than before. Now, imagine if while you were in the middle of doing that, you remembered about some other things that you need to look through. Without putting away the first boxes, you pull a few more off the shelf, and dig into them. Before finishing that, you go back to the first. Then you remember a third group of things you need to look for, and so on. By the time you get back to the first boxes, you don’t recall exactly how they were put away before, and the order doesn’t really seem that important now (especially when looking at the clutter now at your feet). So, you quickly grab them and stuff them back in their boxes however they seem to fit – a bit less ordered than before. And if you are really in a rush, you might even grab one of the empty boxes from the second batch of boxes and use it to pack up the first items. This error might be caused by being in a rush, not remembering the way the items were arranged before, or not even recalling how many boxes they were in before. Of course, that new box probably doesn’t fit this group of items well, but when faced by the thought of now repacking that entire group of items, the bad fit is a small price to pay.
Now imagine if this an accurate idea of how your brain works while multitasking. The decision to move to task B before finishing task A doesn’t just chop up the tasks into pieces that are rearranged in time. It impacts the performance of each task negatively, in a quite predictable way. First, it adds a bunch of time spent purely clearing and populating the mental working space. In practice, we can think of this as the “ok where was I” moment when we switch back to a task we had moved away from. Next, we stop caring about how well the order is maintained in the boxes we pack. Boxes get repacked haphazardly because we have the feeling of there being a mess on our hands. This happens to me when I don’t put away tools in the yard as I go along during a day of yard work. When the sun starts to go down, I panic and resort to grabbing the tools together and dumping them on my workbench. This isn’t because I don’t want to be tidy, but because I’ve only nearly finished a number of projects and haven’t considered the time required for the final step of putting things away. So suddenly, when the sun sets, I need to be out of the yard quickly, but I’m too exhausted from working to take the time to put them away properly. As a result, I make my garage less orderly. So when I next look for something in the garage, I am not able to find things as well due to the reduced organization. I spend more time looking. I underestimate the duration of upcoming tasks because I expect I will be able to find my tools. In the end, I get less done on that day, and I set myself up to get less done the next time. Sometimes I even end up buying duplicate tools! (Sorry to my wife if you are reading this).
So, what can we do about it?
Now that we know that multitasking is very bad, and doesn’t help us, we can just stop doing it, right? Unfortunately no, it is not that easy. We are conditioned to multitask in big ways and small ways. We do it consciously, as well as unconsciously. And even the conscious multitasking is often so deeply-rooted that it is largely unconscious. Beyond that, we are pushed into multitasking by our environment. Modern culture today usually consists of constant connection with others, constant interaction, constant feedback, constant availability. In other words, our lives consist of constant distraction.
One current focus in my “off the cushion” meditation practice involves finding ways to approach daily activities that can reduce the the amount that I multitask.
Some examples:
- I close my email while doing project tasks at work, and only check it periodically.
- I enjoy radio silence in the car. There’s enough going on in my head, in the street, and in the car. Do I really need drums, guitars, news, or commercials?
- I focus on menial tasks. Instead of daydreaming while washing dishes, I keep my mind on what I’m doing. Try it – it’s harder than you’d think!
- I force myself to take a pause when eating, instead of eating snacks on the run or having lunch while working at the computer.
- I look around and listen actively to the sounds outside while walking to my car instead of checking my phone or planning my day.
I think it would be fun one day to try to go cold turkey on multitasking. What would that even look like? I think it would be a fascinating premise for a book.
I would call the book Juggling One Ball.
