The Three Steps to Overcoming Multitasking

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by Keith Ferrazzi

I'm someone who multitasks (or what I thought was multitasking), well, almost all the time, other than during meetings (a big 'don't') and on stage. I've continued this even since I heard from Marcus Buckingham that multitasking reduces your IQ to below stoned-out-of-your-gourd levels. Scary...

Needless to say, I was very interested in Dave Crenshaw's POV. He's the author of The Myth of Multitasking. According to Dave, multitasking doesn't exist. So put down your Blackberry and pay attention!

The Three Steps to Overcoming Multitasking
by Dave Crenshaw

I'd like to share a valuable principle with you. It's something I've taught to many business owners and executives I've worked with. This principle may go against the grain of some of your beliefs about time and the best way to get things done. Because of that, I ask you to keep an open mind.

Multitasking is a myth. It just plain doesn't exist.

Does that shock you? Multitasking has become something of a heroic word in our vocabulary. Many executives pride themselves on their ability to "multitask". Recent job descriptions that I have seen even ask that potential employees have the ability to multitask. A current national commercial sings the praises of multitasking. However, multitasking, as most people understand it, is deceptively counter-productive. Multitasking is tremendously costly. Multitasking hurts us every time we attempt to engage in it.

I should clarify a few definitions. When I speak of multitasking as most people understand it, I am not referring to doing something completely mindless and mundane in the background such as exercising while listening to this CD, eating dinner and watching a show, or having the copy machine operate in the background while you answer emails. For clarity's sake, I call this "background tasking".

When most people refer to multitasking they mean simultaneously performing two or more things that require mental effort and attention. Examples would include saying we're spending time with family while were researching stocks online, attempting to listen to a CD and answering email at the same time, or pretending to listen to an employee while we are crunching the numbers. What most people refer to as multitasking, I refer to as "switchtasking." Why?

Because the truth is we really cannot do two things at the same time—we are only one person with only one brain. Neurologically speaking, it has been proven to be impossible. What we are really doing is switching back and forth between two tasks rapidly, typing here, paying attention there, checking our "crackberry" here, answering voicemail there back and forth back and forth at a high rate. Keep this up over a long period of time, and you have deeply engrained habits that cause stress and anxiety and dropped responsibilities and a myriad of productivity & focus problems. It's little wonder so many people complain of increasingly short attention spans!

When we speak of multitasking, what we really mean is that we are switchtasking: switching rapidly between one task and another. Yet, each time we switch, no matter how quickly that switch takes place in our mind, there is a cost associated with it. It's an economic term called switching cost—and the switching cost is high.

When I shared this principle of switchtasking to a CEO of a respected national company, she was astounded. We did a budgeting exercise where we looked at how much time she was spending in a given week. In the process of budgeting her time and looking at how much time she was spending on each activity, we found that she was extremely over budget in what she thought she could accomplish in a week. The truth is, there are only 168 hours in a week, and yet she had put down that she was accomplishing 188 hours worth of work in that week!

As we went through the process, we realized where the extra time was coming from. It was from the fact that she was doing research at the same time that she was spending time with her family. When we came across this, I taught her how multitasking was a myth. She was spending time either with one or the other. She was switching rapidly between the two. In reality she was rarely spending any time with her family. She was really doing business research in the presence of her family. There is happy end to this story, however.

The next day we met she burst into the room, full of excitement. She exclaimed, "I'll have you know that I spent time with my family last night and I didn't multitask! I got home and said let's go to dinner. My kids were surprised. But we went to the restaurant and I paid attention to them and I didn't think about anything else but spending time with my family. At first I don't think they took me seriously. After they realized that I was really spending time with them and paying attention to them they were excited and I could tell they really appreciated it."

This CEO had come to understand that not only was switchtasking hurting her business, but it was taking a toll on her family. Once she clearly understood the truth and received some guidance on how to take action, she committed make changes. Her business, her family, and she are all better because of it.

May I offer the following "beginning steps" to help slow down the switchtasking in your life?

1. Take control over technology
Your cell phone ringer (even on vibrate) doesn't need to be on all the time. You can turn off email notification on your computer as well. Become master over the nagging beeps and buzzes by creating some silence.

2. Schedule what you can schedule
Set regular times in the day and week to check your voicemail and email. Let others know that you will be using that schedule so they know when to expect a reply.

3. Focus on the person

When you switchtask when dealing with a computer, you simply lose efficiency. But if you switchtask on a human being, you additionally damage a relationship. Be present, listen carefully, and make sure everything has been taken care of before moving on.

Dave Crenshaw has appeared in TIME magazine, SIRIUS XM Radio, Forbes, MSN Money, and been interviewed on radio and TV stations across North America.  His book, The Myth of Multitasking: How ‘Doing It All’ Gets Nothing Done has been published in six languages and is a time management best seller.  He is the foremost expert in helping you get time, and has helped students worldwide get more time for everything they love most in life. www.DaveCrenshaw.com

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13 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

  1. Does anyone really believe they are focusing on more than one thing?

    I think "multitasking" is just a clever word for "I've got a whole lot going on"

    When I open 23 windows on my PC at the start of the day.. it's usually while I'm fighting the urge to jump back in bed... jump-starting the day. Since I can't multitask, I soon forget about being lazy :)

    The advice in this post is good. Interruptions kill productivity.

    Now, I need to shut this window and get back to my tweets. :)

  2. I got to meet Dave many time, he is a very smart kid. I was glad reading your comment Keith.

    Information can distract us but it can give us more creativity extension. New information gives us the capacity to decide. How we learn, how we process and the most important how we prioritize and selected the information is definitely changing.

    We have the power over technology.

    There are not lineal thoughts anymore, everything is fragmentation. There’s a social pressure to multitask tweets, e-mails, whatever and I love to be able to do more things in less time.

    Now, the question is can I turn my cell phone off when I am talking to someone? If the answer is yes, you are Ok and keep multitasking. It’s great but If the answer is no, you should stop and you are creating more damage to yourself and to those surround you.

    I know effective people who can switch from one thing to another very quickly, that it’s a great talent, but there are not many…that it is a challenge that I am all for it…

    I receive multiple emails if you want to multi-conversations to my multi-email sonia@soniathomas.com

  3. I added your blog to bookmarks. And i'll read your articles more often!

  4. "Multi-tasking" reminds me of that old saying, "Jack of all trades, Master of none."

    To give your attention (divided at that) to more than one important task or item is to rob the others of your best. Do what you do, and do it with excellence! One item at a time!

  5. Anne-Claude Hensch Frei says:
    November 29, 2009 at 2:18 am
    Reply

    I want to emphasize on the importance of silence in our life.

    The more we are practicing silence in our life the more we get access to our unconscious mind. And our unconscious mind always knows more solutions to our challenges than the conscious mind. Interestingly, you will also do more in less time.

    So it's definitely a very good idea to control our communication technology!

  6. Smiling just this last week I confront my boss. He had gotten a new Iphone for this birthday and I could pinpoint when our communication issues started.

    At a staff meeting he was reading his email while talking to me. Turns out he missed a point about what I was saying and swears that an email did not contain certain information....he was wrong on both fronts.

    Guess what? He admitted I was probably right and now he is very aware to check his Iphone when he is not talking to someone else.

    I appreciate you taking the time to write this article. We must continue to work to improve communication skills.

    http://www.kathycondons.blogspot.com

  7. WOW! I repeat, WOW! I don't exaggerate in the least when I tell you that this post WILL change my life! It has certainly opened my eyes, and I'm going to take this into deep consideration. Thanks for the info!

  8. The information you shared on multitasking is further reinforced in the wonderful book, "Brain Rules" by Medina. I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in, "Knowing Thy Self" . This is especially useful for Coaches, Teachers, and Training professionals.

  9. Really important principles - I can see how they make a significant difference, simply by focusing on one thing at a time. Well I think it's time to turn off the email and phone and try it out!

  10. Wow! Thanks Kieth for sharing my article. Thanks everyone for all the great comments!

    Because there was so much interest from Keith's site on this, I posted up a free exercise for everyone reading his blog.

    This is a great test to give someone who thinks they're a "good multitasker." It's one of many worksheets contained in my book.

    You can get it here:

    http://www.davecrenshaw.com/free-multitasking-exercise.php

    Enjoy!
    Dave Crenshaw
    Author, The Myth of Multitasking: How 'Doing It All' Gets Nothing Done

  11. Great article and I agree with you about multitasking not being something we should strive for. You have to account for the time it takes to switch gears from one project to another - a lot of times, like in writing for example, it takes a good 10-15 minutes of focus to get the juices flowing and get in the zone for something. I recently read a great article about multitasking in Real Simple Magazine called "Stop the Multitasking Madness -One man’s quest to go from manic multitasker to Zen unitasker in one month flat" by
    by A.J. Jacobs: http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/time-management/stop-the-madness-00000000020965/index.html

    Since then I have been working on consciously focusing on one thing at a time and it's very effective. It's a lot about being fully present for the task at hand (which is why I love dancing so much, because it forces you to focus just on the movement and technique). I also like David Allen's book, "Getting Things Done," because it talks about clearing out the mental clutter of having to-dos gnawing away at you by capturing those thoughts into systems. Not to say multitasking is never effective, however, because there are times when a certain flow is called for, such as when I'm reading articles and then sharing them or making notes to blog about them, etc. Great article all around - thank you so much for sharing this, Keith, and for writing it, Dave!

    @AmandaCrater
    Founder, CraterCom

  12. I did Dave's test, 101 for first pass, 89 for 2nd.
    I think the focus of the multitasking is a critical factor. In today's electronic transactional environment, there are electronic delays in certain tasks, these create an empty space that can be intertwined with similar tasks, but something analytical requires total focus. I would also agree that in a human interactive environment, things can be missed if splitting time.

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