View For Print
The Cost of Multi Tasking
Think all your devices boost productivity? Think again.
We’ve all done it… checking emails on our phones while signing school permission slips, and at the same time scrolling through our tablets checking tomorrow’s weather—as well as preparing a nutritious dinner for the family. Our devices simplify and expedite life’s mundane tasks to free us to engage in more meaningful things, right? As it turns out, all of your digitally-aided multitasking may be actually slowing your productivity.
In the book, The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World, by Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, and Larry Rosen, a research psychologist and professor emeritus at California State University, Dominguez Hills, we learn why the brain can't multitask, and why any of our efforts to keep up with email are likely lowering productive output.
For example, “our tendency to respond immediately to emails and texts gets in the way of high-level thinking,” Dr. Grazzaley explains. Some studies suggest if you're in the middle of a project and stop to answer somebody's email or text, it could take almost a half-hour for you to get back on task.
How the digital age zaps productivity
How to Boost Productivity
Dr. Gazzaley recommends these tricks to boost your productivity.
- Clear your workspace. Remove mobile devices and extraneous papers.
- Use one computer screen. Shut down all unnecessary programs and apps.
- Open one browser, and use only one tab.
- Turn off email. I know—just try it.
- Set expectations. Tell your boss you're going offline for a while. Or, set an auto response for texts and emails, explaining that you'll be offline for a set period of time.
- Work in a quiet environment. If you must work with clamor, use noise-canceling headphones.
- Display a "no interruption zone" sign at your desk or on your office door.
- Check out helpful apps like SelfControl, Freedom, or FocusMe.
"The prefrontal cortex is the area most challenged," said Dr. Gazzaley, referring to the area of the brain responsible for things such as planning, complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. "And then visual areas, auditory areas, and the hippocampus—these networks are really what's challenged when we are constantly switching between multiple tasks that our technological world might throw at us."
Dr.Gazzaley uses an example of checking your email while also listening in on a conference call. "Doing that makes it so incredibly obvious how you can't really parallel process, two attention-demanding tasks," he said. "You either have to catch up, and ask what happened in the conversation, or you have to read over the email before you send it."
When you engage in one task at a time, the prefrontal cortex works in harmony with other parts of the brain, he explains, but when you attempt to multitask, it forces the left and right sides of the brain to work independently, not as intended.
"When a focused stream of thought is interrupted, it needs to be reset," says Dr. Gazzaley. "You can't just press a button and switch back to it. You have to re-engage those thought processes, and re-create all the elements of what you were engaged in. That takes time, and frequently one interruption leads to another."
If you need to focus, there are some great tips from Dr. Gazzaley for turning off distractions in the sidebar above. Then, get back to work!
From the article, Don’t Look Now! How Your Devices Hurt Your Productivity by Lesley McClurg, NPR Shots