Top Reasons Multitasking Does Not Work

It stands to reason that if you need to get a lot done, then you should do a lot. So multi-tasking seems like a great way to accomplish a whole bunch of things at once. But from a time management standpoint this might not be the best approach to accomplishing your goals. Here are five reasons why multi-tasking is not a good time management tool.

Five Reasons You Should NOT Multi-Task

1. When we multi-task we are less efficient. You are only giving a portion of yourself to each project you're working on, so it's not going to be quality work. Mistakes will be made which will cost you more time in having to repair them.

2. You're not fully concentrating on things. Our brains need time to reorient and focus on a particular task. While multi-tasking you are unable to hone your focus on one thing.

3. You are expending more energy by doing more things at once. Since it takes much more energy to stop and refocus instantly on a task, it's going to cause you to become tired more quickly.

4. Multitasking doesn't make you better at any one thing in particular. Think about it; this makes sense. If you never stop to focus your full attention on anything ever, then how can you become proficient in that thing?

5. You lose the ability to filter out information that's not important. And since you can't filter out unimportant information, it will take you longer to work.

Why Would We Multi-Task If It's So Ineffective?

Once you really start to think about the process you go through when you multi-task, you begin to see how truly ineffective it is - and yet we still do it. You probably will never be able to stop. With a busy lifestyle (parenting alone is the ultimate multi-task job) it's hard not to fall into that trap. There are so many demands for our attention that hit us all at once that it's hard not to multi-task.

Not only that, but some things are just boring for us. This gives multi-tasking a bit of satisfaction. Even if you aren't accomplishing anything any faster, we're feeding our need for stimulation. So when doing a boring task, having something less boring as a distraction makes the boring task more fun.

Remember, when you multi-task you are sending out non-verbal cues about how available you really are. If you're on your phone checking your email, while it might be work related, you're not giving your attention fully to a meeting. This is giving you the appearance of not knowing your stuff because everyone already knows you weren't fully involved in the meeting.

In many instances it might be completely unavoidable to multitask. Just know that it's also never going to have you at your most productive and effective. In the long run you're just going to end up making more work for yourself and wasting energy because of the time it takes for your mind to switch tasks and the energy it takes to have to redo your work.

Comments? Questions? Email Here

© HowtoAdvice.com

How to Advice .com