The Dangers of Multitasking

Multitasking seems like the answer to many of our problems – how to become more efficient, get more done and use less resources. The average working day for most people involves being bombarded with tasks – how can we possible get them all done? This post gives some ideas about the dangers of trying to do too much as at the same time.

Quality vs Quantity

If you’ve got several different projects open at one time, it’s likely that none are getting your full attention. They’re not receiving the full benefit of your intelligence, expertise, and experience. Many researchers are in fact convinced that we can only fully concentrate on one thing at a time.

The logic goes something like: think how much of your mental effort you need to complete a project. If you divide that by three the result is not that each take three times as long, or that you achieving three times the output but that the quality of your output is actually two-thirds lower. Most projects do not allow for this margin of error.

Time Pressure

The reason people are trying to do more than one thing at once is because they feel don’t have the time to do them individually. The issue is that, to get mentally ‘into’ a problem or task actually takes time. You need to understand the problem and related factors. Anyone who’s tried to complete an academic essay or critical report amongst constant distractions will readily understand. To avoid having to complete this necessary but ultimately unproductive read in time, you should attempt to complete one task, or to a point where it can progress no further and then start the next.

We need to be clear, that we don’t mean you can’t have more than one task or project active at one time, rather your mental effort is only focused on one at a time.

Not Multitasking

Another common misconception is that the perils of multitasking mean you can’t achieve more than one task at the time. You can eat breakfast and listen to the news, or talk to your kids while ironing; these tasks require considerably less mental effort. The other misconception is, mostly as a result of smartphones, is that, existing in a constant state of distraction from texts, emails, messages and so on while doing your normal job, is somehow multitasking. It is probably less productive than would otherwise be the case but it is, for the same reasons described above, dividing mental effort and causing us to repeat the mental effort required to stay focused. A far better approach is to set time aside to read emails and answer critical communications and not constantly flick attention from one to the other.

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