#ThinkfullyHabit: Stop multi-tasking, start solo-tasking
Multi-tasking makes us less efficient and productive because our brains don’t have the capacity to process everything at once – we can only focus on one thing at a time.
We can switch attention from one task to another, but when attention is overloaded we miss things and take longer to complete activities.
WHY?
You may be thinking “But I’m good at multi-tasking?”. Sadly this is just an illusion. Neuroscience has proven that when we think we’re multi-tasking, our brains are actually ‘switch-tasking’ between activities super quickly, creating the illusion that attention is simultaneous. There’s a stop-start process going on in your brain and research has shown that there is a ‘switch cost’. When you try to do two (or three or four…) attention-demanding tasks at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform each task successfully and you end up doing both worse.
It also takes more time to get tasks completed if you switch between them – Cognitive scientist, David Meyer, found that switching back and forth between two activities increases the amount of time to complete both tasks by 40%!*
If you're doing something that needs focus, solo-tasking - being all in - is better. Some psychologists model our brains attention capacity as being a bit like a spotlight - it can only be shone in one direction at a time. Watch this quick animation to find out more.