Do you know this strange feeling when you realise that you have done work for 10 people in one day only by yourself? It does not surprise you anymore when you talk on the phone, answer an email and check your task list at the same time? Face this undeniable fact: you are a multitasker. It’s not the signal for celebration. Multitasking is not your friend, even if you think so.
Article below will show you how you can be more effective without multitasking and how task tracking software can help you to achieve this.
1. There’s even no such a thing as “multitasking” actually
When multitasking has become a common phenomenon, scientist decided to take it under the microscope. And what happened? It turned out that multitasking doesn’t exist at all. It has been proven that people simply can not do many tasks at once – instead of this we rapidly switch task from one to another (rapid task switching).
How does it differ from doing tasks one by one? You are less focused and quality of your work is reduced. Think about it!
2. Multitasking trips you up
Psychologist Erik Atman from Uniwersity of Michigan has tested his students for distractions coming from short phone calls during working on computer. Although the phone calls wasn’t very long and engaging, the result was pretty surprising – most of respondends made mistakes two times more than without interruptions.
Does it mean that you can do your work two times better without multitasking? I think it’s worthwile to check it out, do you?
3. Multitasking is stressing you
So we already know that multitasking is simply not possible. But anyway you are always forced to multutasking – because of number of tasks, deadlines and impatient boss. Your brain reacts to this cousing release of adrenaline and other stress-related compounds.
Remember that steady level of stress hormones can damage your health. Are you still convinced multitasking is good for you?
4. Multitasking destroys your memory
Studies show that distractions during work lower your ability to keep focused but also affect your memory. Scientist Adam Gazzlaley states:
The impact of distractions and interruptions reveals the fragility of working memory. This is an important fact to consider, given that we increasingly live in a more demanding, high-interference environment, with a dramatic increase in the accessibility and variety of electronic media and the devices that deliver them, many of which are portable.
5. Multitasking is fattening!
It may sounds ridiculous but scientis have proven this too. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that there is a thing called “eating distraction”. It means that when you eat your meal doing something else at the same time, you can’t easily achieve this feeling of fullness that you feel eating normally. It causes that you feel hungry more times that it’s needed and… you know yourself. You are getting fat.
Task tracking software can heal you from multitasking!
Main goal of this post is to show you one, most important thing: you are more productive and satisfied when you work on your tasks separately! First one, than the second and so on. With task tracking software you can divide your projects into single tasks and work on them one by one. It’s simple solution but it can work miracles.
So now you see how insidious multitasking is. Are you a multitasker? Do you suffer because of this? Tell us about it in comments below!