In today’s wired and gadget filled world, we are increasingly expected, and sometimes obliged, to carry out tasks simultaneously. On one level, there are distinct advantages in carrying out tasks simultaneously, but it has to be done in the right fashion. The longest way to carry out a complex series of tasks is to only start and complete one task at a time. For example, if you want to make a cup of tea, the longest way to do it would be to prepare the mug, prepare the teabag, fill the kettle, boil the water, poor the water, let the tea brew, remove the teabag, get the milk from the fridge, poor the milk, return the milk and then drink. A quicker way would be to fill the kettle first, then boil the water. Whilst waiting for the water, you can prepare the mug, teabag and milk. In project management terminology, when you carry out tasks whilst another task is undergoing completion it is called parallel working.

In the field of project management and planning, the quickest way to get a complex group of tasks finished is to organize them so that they run in parallel. If you have five tasks to do and each task takes two weeks to complete, then if you carry them out in series, it takes ten weeks to finish the whole job. If you can do them all in parallel, then it only takes two weeks to complete the task. This is a highly effective planning method assuming that you have the manpower, equipment and other necessary resources available to allow this to happen. For most individuals working on a complex group of tasks this is generally not possible.

Attempting to carry out multiple of tasks simultaneously just doesn’t suit the way that our brains work. In fact, research shows that multitasking reduces your intelligence more than smoking pot (I could have given you the link here, but then you would have to multitask and lose attention, so I’ve put it at the end of the article for you =) ). This happens because the brain can only truly concentrate properly on thing at a time (And it terms of ADD, writing this post is taking longer than I expected. I put out some bird food on my balcony and I now have three sparrows and three greenfinches outside of my window and they are now fighting each other! That wasn’t what I planned on. Now then, where was I?). It takes a while for the brain to assess the task at hand and what has to be done to complete it. Certain tasks require a lot more concentration than other tasks because they require a creative response to the stimulus at hand.

For example, if you receive an e-mail, you have to work out who it is from, whether it is a new communication or whether it already refers to a previous history that you have to remember, you have to process the latest information or request and then formulate a response. Formulating the response could prove very time consuming and highly involved if it requires some deep problem solving. Even if it doesn’t, you have to translate your thoughts into written words and doing that spontaneously often requires reworking it several times. Spontaneous responses are often cluttered and don’t get to the point. As Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “Sorry that I wrote you such a long letter. I didn’t have the time to write you a short one.”

Multitasking has a very severe and detrimental effect upon productivity. We carry out complex tasks most effectively when we can think clearly about the problem at hand, take the time to think through possible solutions, decide upon a solution, prepare and organize the resources necessary to implement the solution and then get on with that implementation without interruption. Detailed preparation carried out before setting to work on a task is one of the most effective ways to boost productivity. A start/stop approach is one of the most effective ways to reduce productivity. It’s bad enough when those stops occur due to genuine problems that prevent progress. It’s even worse when we allow the additional factor of distractions to enter into the equation.

Distractions such as e-mails, answering the phone and people turning up at your desk unexpectedly will grab our attention, because they seem urgent. Very often though, they are relatively unimportant. If you truly want to boost your productivity, then turn off your e-mail, put the phone on mute and if you really want to get things done, then put a sign on your desk saying “Do not disturb. Available at 3pm.” I know that in the office environment that it can be very difficult to make yourself unavailable, but do what you can to introduce a trend of having concentrated, uninterrupted blocks of time and guard those sessions well. Your productivity will soar and that will give you more time to give focused attention to those other issues that people want to involve you in.

Coming back to the issue of parallel working for people working alone, the way to organize yourself is to have two or three sessions of concentrated activity on separate tasks per day, or if it suits you, devote a whole day, or days, to doing a batch of work per week. I personally like to get my head down and blitz a task so that it is started and finished in one session. Sometimes I’ll do things in a batch and devote a whole day to that batch of work. Often though, it is important to keep up with progress and momentum on a number of diverse tasks, so I assign periods of time and do what I can in that time period and accept that I will not get it all finished that day and will continue with it very soon.

Finally, is effective multitasking possible? I would say “Yes” but only in a very limited way. For tasks that we are fully adept at, that don’t require any problem solving and that can be done on ‘automatic’ then multitasking is possible. For example, many people can drive a car and listen to the radio at the same time. A trained musician can play piano, or guitar, and sing at the same time. I, myself, can even walk and chew gum at the same time. If it’s easy, or if it’s trained through repetition, then it’s possible, but for new and unique tasks, then forget it.

Related Links:

Multi-tasking reduces your IQ more than smoking pot

Survey: Women better at multitasking than men

Here’s A Quick Way to Boost Your Productivity - Batch Processing

Human Multitasking

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