Debunking the Myth of Multitasking at the Office

**AAB88** · 24th April 2014, 04:53 PM

We all do it, and many of us are probably doing it right now. You’re reading this in between emails or while you prepare breakfast; after that, you’ll drive somewhere, and although you know you shouldn’t, you’ll check your phone while on the road. This is multitasking, and with today’s technology, multitasking has never been easier. But being easy doesn’t always translate to being beneficial, and the technology that’s supposed to make our lives better may just be hurting our productivity.

Multitasking is often believed to be an asset in business, so much so that employers often put it as a requirement for job positions. But is juggling multiple tasks at once really beneficial for our work? Recent studies sought the answer to that question, so let’s explore their findings to reveal the true effects of multitasking.

The Science Behind Multitasking

Studies show that when humans attempt to perform two tasks at once, the brain splits the job amongst its two frontal lobes. If it’s trying to juggle two relatively simple tasks (i.e. talking while walking), “automaticy” takes place, which allows it to handle these tasks easily because they require very little cognition. But when the tasks become more complex and need to be remembered (i.e. reading while walking), the brain prioritizes what it feels is the most important and focuses less on the smaller job.

As our tasks become more and more complex, we require a deep level of sustained attention to process and store the information. But multitasking disrupts sustained thinking, and we instead fall victim to “continuous partial attention,” which interferes with our ability to fully grasp concepts and situations. Instead of focus, we jump from one distraction to the other, and progress on our more difficult tasks is stunted while we try to process and observe the less-important outliers.

Furthermore, this ability to juggle is limited, so when INSERM neuroscientists tried to introduce a third task in a multitasking experiment, the brain became overwhelmed. The study found that, as the brain attempted to prioritize the third task, it put a less-important one on the backburner and completely forgot to accomplish it.

As such, when we attempt to complete two or more complicated tasks at once, we’re actually not “multitasking” in the sense that we’re working on multiple projects at the same time. Instead, our brain is simply shifting rapidly from one task to another, and that’s where the problems set in.

Side Effects of Multitasking

Most of us multitask because we believe it makes us more productive, and this might actually be the case when we undertake two relatively simple tasks, like eating while reading. But as the tasks become more complex, like doing office work while reading a news story, we actually become less productive and spend more time on projects than we have to. While it may seem insignificant, the nanoseconds it takes for our brains to constantly shift from one task to another takes a toll on our productivity. In fact, a recent study by Realization found that this task-shifting actually depletes our productivity by as much as 40%, which increases our time to accomplish these tasks by as much as 50%.

On top of that, the resultant lack of attention when our brain tries to juggle multiple things depletes our ability to fully comprehend information that’s before us. Constant distraction makes focus impossible, and studies show that heavy multitasking negatively affects our cognition, so much so that our IQ can be lowered by as much as 15 points, an effect that researchers say is three-times worse than the effects of smoking cannabis.

This tendency, dubbed “fractured thinking,” was found in a Stanford study that sought to find how “heavy multitaskers” differed from “non-multitaskers.” Researchers asked participants to make observations while bombarded with distractions. They expected the multitaskers to be accustomed to working this way and hypothesized that they’d outperform the non-multitaskers. What happened was the opposite: the non-multitaskers were actually better at multitasking than their counterparts.

The scientists found that multitaskers were in fact accustomed to multitasking, but this made them worse at it. The multitaskers observed the information presented to them, but they were unable to focus on their goals. Instead, they absorbed the irrelevant information that they were told to ignore, and these distractions prevented them from accomplishing the main tasks of the experiment. In other words, multitaskers were more sensitive to incoming information than non-multitaskers, but they were unable to shut off their multitasking tendencies even when they weren’t multitasking.

Furthering their experiment, the Stanford researchers sought to find if the multitaskers were better at juggling tasks than non-multitaskers. They gave the participants a goal (i.e. differentiate vowels from consonants), then they had them switch goals in the middle of the experiment (i.e. differentiating odd numbers from evens). The study found that non-multitaskers were more efficient at juggling the two tasks, as the multitaskers took longer to switch and perform their work. The researchers concluded that, even when they attempted to focus on a single activity, multitaskers were unable to use their brains as effectively as non-multitaskers. As put by one of the researchers, multitaskers “couldn't help thinking about the task they weren't doing”; they “are always drawing from all the information in front of them. They can't keep things separate in their minds.”

As these studies show, multitasking interrupts our focus, and even when we try to avoid multitasking, it still affects us, which is a problem that can prove to be difficult to overcome. When you put these findings in the perspective of everyday life (i.e. “Texting while driving makes me a bad driver”), it’s easy to see their effects, but in some places, like the office, seeing the pitfalls of multitasking can be a bit harder.

Multitasking’s Effects on the Office

While we, as individuals, are guilty of multitasking, so too are businesses, whose multitasking have been found to both deplete productivity and decrease morale. Realization’s study attempted to quantify the effects of multitasking in the office, and it found some interesting results.

Realization classified “organizational multitasking” as a situation in which a group is focused on too many projects at once. It found the end results to be delays and interruptions, reduced quality of work, peaks and valleys in workflow, and a lack of preparation when transitioning from project to project.

The study found the main offenders to be managers, whose multitasking caused a large number of delays. Instead of setting aside time to focus on a single task, the managers try to fit in many tasks at once. As put by the researchers at Realization, “When managers multitask, even small decisions can take days; instead of spending, say, a quality 15 minutes with people, they can afford only a rushed and ineffective two to three minutes.”

Another byproduct of multitasked organizations is a loss of control. Multitasking makes it difficult to prioritize projects, and as Realization observed, this lack of prioritization makes every task seem equally urgent. This allows real and critical issues to fall through the cracks, and the business is left trying to solve the wrong problems.

As a whole, Realization found that organizations lose up to 27.5% of productivity as a result of multitasking. They did some math and calculated this loss to equate to more than $450 billion a year globally, an imposing figure that all organizations would undoubtedly like to decrease.

Alleviating the Effects of Multitasking

Attempting to stop multitasking is a difficult job to undertake. In truth, sometimes multitasking is necessary, but for those times when it isn’t, the best way to avoid multitasking is to become more organized and to cut yourself off from distractions.

If you have a project that needs to get finished, disconnect from the internet, turn off your phone and place all your focus on the singular task at hand. It’s also a good idea to plan out your tasks and have a written schedule for them throughout the day. Give the schedule hard and relatively short deadlines, and force yourself to focus on the projects in order to get them done before the deadlines hit. Emails are notorious distractions at work, so set a schedule for when you devote time to purging your inbox. For example, spend 30 minutes in the morning solely for emails, then 30 minutes more right after lunch, then spend the last 30 minutes of the day to finish the job. If you can ignore your inbox for the rest of the workday, you’ll likely accomplish more work that’s higher quality.

Most importantly, give your brain some rest. Our brain is flooded with tasks every minute of the day, and it needs a break from time to time. Instead of jumping from one task to another, take a quick break in between to clear your head. This will get the last task off your mind and prepare you for what’s to come. And this preparation can help you focus on what you truly need to accomplish.

The main goal is to notice when you’re multitasking and to make an attempt at stopping it. It’s a lot more difficult than it seems, but by avoiding multitasking, you can make your days less stressful and your projects more rewarding (or so science tells us).