You know that I start each week with some positive words of wisdom! This week’s positive wise words are:
Last week, I wrote about how humans are incapable of truly multi-tasking, engaging instead in serial switching.
It’s true that you are capable of absorbing information with your eyes while doing other things efficiently. Scientifically speaking, making use of your vision is the only thing you can truly do while doing something else. Think of walking to the street corner, looking at the traffic light while you are walking.
For everything else, you’re serial-tasking. Constant refocusing like this can be exhausting. Worse still, it prevents us from giving our work the deep attention it deserves.
Think about how much longer it takes to do something when you have to keep reminding yourself to focus. That’s one element of why multi-tasking does more harm than good for your productivity.
This element is one of four reasons to stop all these multiple-task-shenanigans: Multi-tasking wastes your time.
Yes, you’re literally losing time with all your self-imposed interruptions! People lose an average of 2.1 hours per day getting themselves back on track when switching between tasks.
You’re decreasing your productivity by as much as 40% with all your many and varied simultaneous tasking activities according to some studies. That’s a significant loss in efficiency. Would you be happy if your surgeon operated with 40% less accuracy and attention while you’re “under the knife?”
I have three other great reasons why you should stop multi-tasking. Next week I will share them with you! Stay tuned!
Carlos
