The Myth of Multitasking: Stop, Focus, Get More Done

In an article on The American Psychological Association Website, the authors write of two actions involved in switching from one task to another:

They call one stage "goal shifting" ("I want to do this now instead of that") and the other stage "rule activation" ("I'm turning off the rules for that and turning on the rules for this").

In other words you use attention to stop doing one thing and start the next, and then you use further attention to remind yourself what the rules, intentions or demands of the new task actually are.

This is why multi-tasking is a myth. We don't do several things at once. We do many things sequentially. Do something, then stop doing it, move to something else, remember what we are trying to achieve, start doing it, stop doing it, move on, remember what the new task is all about, do a bit of it...

It is a phenomenal waste of energy!

According to The American Psychological Association:

Although switch costs may be relatively small, sometimes just a few tenths of a second per switch, they can add up to large amounts when people switch repeatedly back and forth between tasks. Thus, multitasking may seem efficient on the surface but may actually take more time in the end and involve more error. Meyer has said that even brief mental blocks created by shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40 percent of someone's productive time.

Why do we waste so much time distracting ourselves by jumping from one thing to another, rather than completing one task before starting the next? Why do we generally prefer continual distraction? Why do many of us run a mile from actually focusing and sticking with one thing for extended periods?

Psychologist Nate Kemp PhD writes:

Psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert found that the human mind is actually wired for this state of continuous distraction.

He draws two conclusions.

The first is this:

… distraction is primarily a mind game. If we really want to get focused, if we really want to more skillfully manage the distractions of digital life, the path has to include developing a new habit of more effectively managing our most precious resource: our attention.

The second is this:

We should focus less on what we're doing and more on how we are being.

This is important. 'Tricks' to 'make you present' are - at best - short term solutions. At worst, they are fraud.

The only true solution to distraction is to change how your mind operates - to become someone who chooses to be present. It is about personal transformation.

Kemp's solution to distraction? 'Shift your attention to focus on the now'.

It doesn't take a genius to see how training performers in any performance style CLEARLY offers strategies to counteract distraction (and the unhappiness and exhaustion distraction causes). We train people to pay attention. We train people to respond to the present moment. We train people to avoid distraction. We train people to know themselves and discipline their minds - to change how they ARE in the world.

Some of what we do involves training people to be better performers - some may even go on to be professional performers. However we also work with people who will never be performers and probably have no interest in trying to be! Is our work a waste of time? Absolutely not! When we train people to be focused and present for extended periods of time, to put aside distraction and the illusion of multitasking, we train them to be more fully conscious, aware, mindful and happy. We train them to be more functional. We train them to be efficient too, though that, for me, is a secondary benefit, not a primary one.