In a world that seems to never sleep, multitasking seems almost necessary this day in age. The ability to handle multiple projects at the same time can help ensure we meet deadlines and is just overall more productive, right?
Surprisingly, multitasking can actually be less productive than just handling one task at a time. This is because your brain has to move from one thing to another rather than just focusing on one task at a time.
When you multitask, your brain is forced to change from one way of thinking to another almost simultaneously. The most common example of this would be working on something creative like a blog post and switching gears to answer a phone call about a business-related task. When you finish the call and go back to the creative project, you might find that it’s hard to switch off the business-minded thoughts and get the creative ones flowing again.
Not sold that multitasking is making you less productive and successful both in your work and personal life? Here are seven big reasons to ditch multitasking once and for all.
- Declining Quality in Your Work – By switching back and forth between projects, you’re more likely to speed through the work without checking it over, leaving behind errors and inconsistencies.
- Chronic Distraction in All Parts of Your Life – Once your mind becomes used to quickly moving from one thing to another, you’ll find this can carry over into your non-work life. You’re likely to feel more distracted and unfocused while doing everyday tasks.
- Procrastination & Misplaced Priorities in Work – When you become more distracted, that can easily turn into procrastination. You’ll find that you put things off to avoid stress or you will struggle with what projects to start first.
- Lowers Your IQ – Believe it or not, multitasking can even lower your IQ. Studies have shown that adults who multitask have IQs close to an eight-year-old because their minds are being stretched too thin trying to cover everything that needs to get done.
- Causes Chronic Stress and Anxiety – From struggling to juggle multiple tasks, you’ll find that you are stressing out more since you’re not getting as much as done or not getting as much done as quickly.
- Kills Your Creativity – By switching gears on different items, you’ll find you use the wrong skills. Switching between different types of projects can make it hard for you to get into the right headspace.
- Provokes Tiredness – This act of switching between two projects or tasks requires a lot more concentration than focusing on just one does. Our brain needs time to be able to just zero in on one thing to keep up its maximum efficiency.
On paper, multitasking might seem like it is the way to go, but in reality, attacking each task without distractions will prove to be a much better approach.
To help you avoid stress and get yourself to be your most productive, let yourself just focus on one thing. When you find yourself with a to-do list that seems never-ending, it’s truly better to knock items off the list one at a time instead of doing a little bit of each job all at once.
In a world that works non-stop, it can be a hard pill to swallow that we need to slow down and address things head-on with zero distractions interfering to be our most productive.
