The first thing I did that dramatically increased my productivity, quality, and happiness was taking control of my time.
The second thing I did was stop the illusion of multitasking.
I think of most things in terms of computers. I’ve been making and programming computers my entire life (since 4th grade). Still doing it.
As it turns out, our brains are like a single-core computer processor when it comes to multitasking — they can’t.
The CPU can do exactly one thing at a time. If it needs to do something else, it has to do what we call a “context switch,” which comes with an overhead cost. The CPU must save the state of one task and load the next, slowing down performance and taking resources. Every switch wastes time and energy and is a source of potential bugs.
Our brain works the same way, but worse. The brain is slow, inefficient, and error-prone when switching tasks. Studies show that multitaskers are terrible at filtering distractions, retaining information, and switching focus. Yet, for some reason, we usually still believe we’re more productive when juggling multiple things at once.
So why? And who?
Why are we trying to multitask?
Who is putting pressure on us to multitask?
If you’re a leader, don’t be the problem.
