There Is No Right Or Wrong In Multitasking. Here’s Why.
The truth behind multitasking
Multitasking is a very common topic nowadays. Some say multitasking is the way to increase productivity in order to accomplish more tasks. Some say multitasking does not work at all, as it requires our brains to shift from one mindset to the other mindset in order to start another task.
Herein, let me explain why there is no right or wrong in multitasking and how could we achieve more with multitasking.
Multitasking to increase productivity
When you are seeking for jobs or got invited for a job interview, I guess you are going to mention that you are capable to multitask. Basically, the original idea of multitasking is to increase productivity. And that’s why you have to show that you are a productive person.
There is nothing wrong about multitask to increase productivity. As suggested by the wording, if you could multitask in a given period of time. It means that you are capable to work on several tasks simultaneously. In other words, more tasks could be completed in a short period of time.
And that’s how you are going to prove that you are a valuable asset to your company.
However, is that the truth? Do multitasking could really increase your productivity?
Multitasking is not productive
Dig deep into the concept of multitasking, we realized that multitasking is not so productive.
For example, let’s say we are working on task A for an hour already, someone come over to your desk and said that this case is urgent and need to be solved before the end of the day. And so you have decided to start to work with task B.
The transition point between task A and task B does not increase your productivity, it actually decreases your work efficiency. The reason is that when you are switching from one task to another task, given that the nature of the tasks are different, it requires your brain to stop everything in your mind right now, and need to change the mindset to solve the new problem.
Given that you have task A, B, C and D in front of you, could you really solve all of them simultaneously? Or do you simply complete one task first before move on to the next task? Or do you work half way through and switched to another task?
When you decide to stop the current task and work on the new task, the productivity rate is low — because it requires you to study the information, review all the data, analyse the core problem, etc. before you could really take action and solve the problem.
On the other hand, if you choose to continue to work and complete the task that you are working on before moving on to the next task, the productivity rate is high — because you have save time in revisiting all the data again and again and simply focus to take action to solve the problem.
In other words, there are no such thing called multitasking in this world. There are only task-switching in this world.
The Truth About Multitasking
After all, is multitasking productive or not? Is there any correct answer for multitasking? Or does multitasking even exist?
There is no right or wrong in multitasking. Multitasking does exist, but we also need to understand that our brains can’t handle multiple cognitively demanding tasks at once.
Let’s have a look at the scenarios below.
Scenario A
In this scenario, you have two cognitively demanding tasks in front of you. Would you consider to do it one by one or both at once? Obviously the productive way is to finish task A before task B. You are saving the time in kick starting the new task. In other words, multitasking is not productive in this scenario.
Scenario B
In this scenario, you have two unconscious tasks in front of you. It is strange to say it this way but this scenario is all around us. We could walk and breathe at the same time. We could talk during our dinner with our friends or relatives.
The everyday tasks are not cognitively demanding at all. And we seldom realized that they are actually consider as tasks. However, if we could identify them, we could achieve better time management and multitask in order to improve productivity.
And that’s bring up to the next scenario.
Scenario C
In this scenario, we have one cognitively demanding task and one unconscious task in front of us. A great example is listening to a podcast during your commute.
A daily commute from your home to your workplace is not a cognitively demanding task. On the other hand, listening to a podcast is a cognitively demanding task because you are absorbing new knowledge from the podcast and you have to think in your head. You have fully utilized the time being wasted in your commute. And this is where you are multitasking to improve productivity.
All in all, we need to view every actions as tasks. Then we need to define whether a task is cognitively demanding or not. And at last, we could match up one cognitively demanding task and one unconscious task in order to improve productivity through multitasking.
