Your priorities might have changed since the start of the pandemic, shifting your long-term goals. In the short term, though, you’re probably still spinning multiple plates as you adjust to life beyond lockdowns.
When you live an increasingly busy life, multitasking might seem like the perfect strategy for doubling down on your to-do list.
Research suggests, however, that the relatively modern concept of multitasking could be having a negative effect. It has been found to lessen productivity, lower concentration, and could even be detrimentally affecting your mental health.
Here’s how.
Multitasking isn’t efficient
While you might think you are multitasking, it’s far more likely that you are switching between two or more distinct tasks fairly quickly.
This isn’t an efficient way to work.
Each time you swap from one task to another you interrupt your flow of concentration. Cutting off one set of thought processes and retuning your brain to work differently takes time. This switching between tasks is known as “goal shifting” and, while the changes it forces your brain to undergo occur quickly, they can soon add up if you’re switching tasks regularly.
The concept of multitasking is fairly new (the term first appeared in the 1960s), but psychologists have been unpicking its promises for at least two decades.
Research from the American Psychological Association in the early 2000s found that the effect of rapidly switching between tasks could cost as much as 40% of your productivity. You’ll still be working hard but you won’t be working efficiently.
Multitasking isn’t effective
When you multitask, you are distracting yourself from one task with another. This constant distraction can influence your effectiveness.
Goal shifting breaks your concentration and it is when you aren’t concentrating that you make mistakes. The constant switching between tasks leads to more distractions, lower concentration, and will likely lead to more errors.
Constant switching can also reduce your attention span, and ultimately lower your IQ. Not only that, but you could also lower the IQ of those around you!
According to a study into laptop use in classrooms published by Science Direct, multitasking activities can distract those nearby. Your goal shifting can cause classmates – or work colleagues – to lose concentration too, suffering the same reduction in IQ and cognitive ability, and an increased risk of making mistakes.
Multitasking can damage your health
Reading a map while crossing a road or taking a selfie on a cliff edge might be extreme examples of how multitasking can expose you to danger but distracting yourself – and thereby lowering your concentration levels – can be damaging at any time.
The government’s road safety campaign Think! conducted research into mobile phone use while driving and found that:
- You are four times more likely to be in a crash if you use your phone while driving
- Your reaction time is twice as slow if you text and drive than if you drink drive.
While the physical health implications of juggling work emails might not be so extreme, the mental health impact of constant multitasking shouldn’t be underestimated.
A 2008 study by the University of California looked specifically at the impact of workplace interruptions, whether from colleagues or as a by-product of multitasking. The study found that, as workers compensate for interruptions, they experience more stress and higher frustration, as well as anxiety from added time pressure and a need for increased effort.
3 simple ways to refocus and combat the detrimental effects of multitasking
1. Improve your attention span
The goal shifting that is an innate part of multitasking affects concentration and can shorten your attention span. Train your brain by focusing on single tasks for long periods.
This won’t always be possible at work so use your leisure time to train your brain by taking up a creative hobby like art or learning a new skill. The intense concentration required to focus on a piece of art, learn a language or play a new instrument will increase your attention span and help you focus and relax.
2. Mentally and physically declutter
Distractions could be household chores, a messy workspace, or the constant lure of social media. Hide your phone, factor chores into the non-working parts of your day and try to mentally compartmentalise them so that they don’t encroach when you are at work.
Meditation and mindfulness techniques can be a great way to mentally declutter and de-stress. Consider apps like Headspace or Calm and schedule relaxation into your normal working day.
3. Take regular breaks and get plenty of fresh air
Multitasking is unlikely to work, but neither can you remain fully focused on a single task indefinitely. Concentrating for long periods is mentally draining, so be sure to take regular breaks.
Get out into the fresh air to reinvigorate body and mind and incorporate mindfulness into your exercise.
When you return home or head back to work, you’ll find it much easier to refocus on the task at hand.