Why Multitasking Is The Enemy of Productivity

There's a price to pay for multitasking.

I came across these wise words from Michele Cambardella the other day, and they reminded me of the importance of singular focus in our work. Many knowledge workers insist on doing many things simultaneously in the name of productivity. They don't realize that this almost always makes tasks take longer.

I believe humans are inherently incapable of multitasking because our biology isn't built for it.

Scientific research supports this idea, but any one of us can come up with anecdotal examples where working on multiple tasks at once made them take longer in aggregate.

Age ain't got nothing to do with it

Not being able to multitask has more to do with distractibility than aging.

We may become more forgetful as we age, but this has nothing to do with our multitasking abilities. It's all about maximizing attention span and being intentional and present in the moment.

Modern knowledge work is fraught with distractions. Once you're connected to the internet, all bets are off for most people. Notifications from email, messaging apps, and social media challenge your attention span at every turn. Your physical environment is important, too. When you work from home, you may have pets or children wanting your attention. And at the office, there's the ever-present bustle from co-workers and passers-by.

Our focused attention is a scarce resource that's being chipped away at from all sides. This is just a fact of reality, but it doesn't mean we're helpless. With some effort, we can retake control.

Being present and intentional is the first step.

30 minutes on, 5 minutes off

We can't be hyper-focused all day long.

While every person has a different "attention metabolism," no one can be expected to be "on" for eight hours straight. Finding your attention sweet spot will enable you to tweak your "focus engine" for maximum efficiency.

Your attention span moves along an arc and oscillates up and down like a sine wave, a sound wave, or an ocean wave. You can synchronize your brain to the wave pattern, so you're no longer sloshing around in the sea but riding the waves of focused attention up and down. Intervals of 30 minutes of deep work, followed by 5 minutes of controlled distraction, work well for me. I suggest using a timer (physical or otherwise) and stepping away from the screen after each 30-minute block. Walk around, step outside, do some laundry, whatever.

While you unload that dishwasher, your unconscious mind will continue working in the background. And when you return, you'll be refreshed and ready for another cycle. Perhaps you're better off with a 20-5 or a 40-10 cycle? Experiment, but be persistent and consistent.

Ride the wave of attention; don't let it drive you offshore.

Disconnect from the world

There is much to learn from truly being alone with yourself.

The civilized world is built by teams of separate minds that band together and connect in unbelievable ways, but I believe teams only work when "team time" is balanced with sufficient "alone time." Individual thinking is where processing happens, and processed ideas are used later when working with others.

Our squirrel-like mind will jump at any distraction, so we need to close it off if we want to engage in deep work. It's simple, and you've heard this all before, but turn it all off. At least during these 30-minute focus blocks, turn off all external impulses from Slack and email to your phone's ringer. Close the door to your office if you have one, or move to a space where people will leave you alone. In an open office space, you can opt for noise-canceling headphones and listen to one of the many focus or studying-related playlists in your chosen music streaming app. Windows and Mac offer tools to manage notification distractions automatically; look into those if you're the technical type.

Separating yourself from the world during focus blocks works. It opens your mind to new insights and increases creativity because all of your mental bandwidth is going to a single thing.

This is what people sometimes call "flow" and this heightened state of focus can be unlocked by anyone.