If you’ve been reading self-improvement blogs for a while, you’ve probably heard this a dozen times: Multitasking is evil! Multitasking is bad!! Get rid of distractions!!! Focus on a single task!!!!
Then there are a few lone mavericks who argue the opposite case. Just this week, I’ve read two diametrically opposite views: Taming The Web 2.0 Mind and In Defense of Multitasking.
And I, being the scatterbrained nutjob I am (I like to call it “considering different points of view”), will tell you they’re BOTH right!
Multitasking is fun!
Let’s start with the main point. Multitasking is fun! It feels very much like flipping through TV channels. No one knows why we guys love flipping through TV channels so much. We just do. (Okay, I’m not being fair. I’m sure some evolutionary psychologist somewhere figured out exactly the reason why. It probably has something to do with the mating habits of Borneo monkeys, and the evolutionary advantage of the TV flipping gene.)
(And yes, I actually like and appreciate evolutionary psychologists.)
(I like monkeys too by the way. Though I like penguins better. So if you want to get me a Christmas present, anything with penguins will make me happy!)
Ok, where was I? Oh yeah. Multitasking.
It’s simply fun to be scatterbrained. I sometimes work on 3 or 4 unrelated tasks online, while simultaneously chatting with a friend and Stumbling Upon websites. And when I momentarily lose focus, I don’t need to force myself to refocus. I simply alt-tab between browser windows. It’s just like changing the TV channel. Effortless.
This allows me to get the tasks done while casually browsing the web. It simply doesn’t feel like work. It takes longer, but I actually get the stuff done, instead of procrastinating!
Singletasking is productive!
Then there are tasks that are just made for singletasking. A distraction will completely throw you off, and you’ll need several minutes to refocus. And if you get distracted several times in a row, you might as well pack up for the day. If you’ve ever tried studying in a frequented spot at the university, had a few friends interrupt you with questions, got a text message, had another few friends walk up to say hi, and realized you’ve been sitting there for half an hour and you’ve only answered one small part of one question, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Singletasking is insanely productive. You simply sit down, and get a huge chunk of useful work done at once. You become immersed in it, completely consumed by it, to the point that it doesn’t feel like work anymore.
If you keep getting distracted, it might be for a couple of reasons:
1. You didn’t turn off the distractions
If you get an annoying pop-up every time you get an e-mail, have your phone ready to interrupt you with a ring just when you get in the flow, and have your door open to others coming in and distracting you, guess what. You WILL get distracted 
! Turning the obvious distractions off is the first step.
2. You WANT to get distracted because you find the task boring
This used to be an extremely common reason why I kept getting distracted. Lately, it’s been happening a lot less, because I took some active steps to avoid having to do boring stuff. For example, I rearranged my priorities – at the university, instead of focusing on grades I focus on learning. So when I get a homework, I only do the interesting questions that will help me learn more. I simply leave the tedious boring questions unanswered.
And you can always turn the work into fun! It’s a great way of curing procrastination.
3. You can’t focus because you’re tired
Your brain isn’t designed to work full-blast non-stop. You simply deplete the glucose levels in your brain, and they take some time to restore. You need frequent short (as in 5-minute-short) breaks, and longer breaks every couple of hours. In fact, here are the two best solutions when you’re too tired to focus:
- a 20 minute nap
- a long nap (like 2 hours)
It’s quite easy to confuse being too tired with being bored with the task. But from my experience, here are two simple indicators that you’re tired:
- you’re craving something sweet
- if you close your eyes for a few seconds, you just want to KEEP them closed. Forever.
Yeah, sometimes the best solution when you’re craving something sweet is to… eat something sweet! But more often than not, this will only get you going for another 15 minutes, and then you’ll crash even harder. A nap is MUCH more effective!
Summary
Focus on one task if you need to. Use the above methods to avoid getting distracted. If you keep getting distracted without an obvious cause, maybe the task isn’t worth doing? And if you don’t need super-sharp focus to get something done, feel free to multitask! It’s fun!
By the way, did you know somebody found a lolcat picture from 1905? Amazing!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This post is absolutely bang on. Of your advise, I really like #3. I have never really stopped to think that I should take a quick nap instead of eating something. I always just assumed that I was feeling week or dreary because I needed food energy. Your point is very helpful.
I love multitasking, especially when I have nothing important to do. However, in my situation, I find that my enjoyment of multitasking inhibits me from being about to focus and accomplish what needs to be done when I cannot afford to waste any time.
For someone who lives online in their spare time, using a computer to accomplish loads of work without distraction can almost become a very daunting task. My recommendation for anyone who has trouble focusing away from the internet is to disable their internet connection altogether. Though I have never actually done this, I feel that this would be one very good way to improve work flow efficiency.
Or my favourite way of clearing a large and mostly boring chore list is to do rapid fire singletasking. Set a timer, work on one thing for 15 minutes then when the timer goes off switch to the next task. Rinse repeat just doing 15 minutes of each task until all done.
Disadvantage can be if the list is too long then you just end up with a load of partially finished tasks. Advantage is that you can focus on something specific but stop it before you get too bored. Also, the procrastination of starting a hugely boring chore is reduced because, after all, you’re only going to have to do it for 15 minutes.
Hugely useful for cleaning a bombsite of a house the day before relations are due… just switch rooms when the 15 minute timer goes off…
{ 1 trackback }