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“Multitasking” isn’t a flex; it makes you inefficient and wastes precious brain power. But there’s a solution that makes you more efficient and less stressed.
By now, you know I believe multitasking is a trap. I’ve written about this before. The bottom line is you aren’t good at it because most people aren’t. A study quoted in this Cleveland Clinic article suggested that just 2.5% of the general population can multitask. Last week, I reposted a clip from an interview on Diary of a CEO where the guest, Dr. Sahar Yousef, had the host, Steven Bartlett, do a little exercise to feel multitasking.
1. Think you’re good at multitasking – try this
The instructions were simple. 1) Grab a piece of paper and a pen/pencil, 2) draw two lines, 3) on the first line you are going to write the following phrase: “I am a great multitasker”, 4) on the second line you are going to write numbers 1-20. But here’s the kicker: each time you write a letter on the first line, switch to the second line and write one number, and so on. Oh yeah, and you have just 30 seconds to do it.
Ready? Go!
Check out this video for how the HOST did. He didn’t make it very far. He said each time he switched from one line to the other, he had to remind himself where he had left off. It wasn’t like he had been working on the “new” task for very long; I mean, how long does it take to write a letter or number? He just couldn’t hold onto the previous number or letter in his short-term memory. Suddenly, he could feel the cognitive load of multitasking. And that’s the point of this exercise: to really feel the burden of task switching.
2. So, I can’t multitask; I still have A LOT of work to do. How do I do it?
But in a world where we’re expected to be on 24/7, fielding competing requests to do vastly different kinds of work (hello teaching, service, and research), and following multiple generations of senior colleagues who prided themselves on “just powering through”, it can be hard to know how to break the multitasking habit.
Well, fortunately/unfortunately, you break the multitasking habit the same way you break any habit:
1. Identify the trigger
2. Redesign your environment
3. Substitute the routine
3. How to break a habit in 3 steps
When I sat down to think about my multitasking habit, I realized the email was my biggest trigger. I would see an email come in and think, “Oh, just let me reply to that quickly.” Of course, I then had to remind myself where I was in the manuscript, reading, or course prep, before getting back to work. After doing that flip-flop routine a few times, a paper I could read in 30 minutes uninterrupted would still be sitting open on my desktop 3 days later.
Here’s how I broke that habit:
1. Redesigned my environment. Instead of keeping my email open all day to tempt me, I blocked three 30-minute blocks in the morning, at lunch, and at the end of the day to deal with emails. Outside those times, I kept my email closed.
a. Trust me, in a real emergency, someone will pick up the phone 😉.
2. Substituted my routine. My reflections email trigger also made me realize I reached for email when I was frustrated with another task. So, I started substituting the email routine with a walk around my department offices and setting a time limit for my tasks. Knowing I ONLY had to work on the frustrating thing for 30 minutes or an hour helped me focus.
What Do You Think?
I worked through this process a few years ago during a very high-stress time in my career. It took a few months to feel okay about ignoring my inbox during my non-email times, but it has helped immeasurably. I am now more efficient in all my work because I have trained my brain to focus on one thing at a time. AND no one has yelled at me for waiting on email replies. It turns out most emails just aren’t as urgent as I used to think 😜.
Curious about your own multitasking triggers? Answer the three questions below and let’s chat.
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