For many, being able to multitask is like wearing a badge of honor. The thought is if you do more than one thing at once, you’ll be able to accomplish so much more. The reality is by multitasking you are working harder and not smarter and you end up taking longer to get everything done.
Every time you are distracted in doing a task, it will take an average of 15 minutes to regain your focus. When you are trying to do 4 things at once, you aren’t giving your full attention to any of them. When you switch back and forth between tasks, it will take you about 15 minutes to get back in the right mind frame to complete the task you go back to.
Let’s do the math. When you begin working on Task 1 for about 30 minutes, then get distracted with Task 2, work on it for a time, then come back to Task 1, you have to get back in the right frame of mind. Remember, that takes about 15 minutes. If you switch gears 4 times, you’ve wasted an hour! You don’t give your mind a chance to have a break which leads to fatigue and burnout.
To be more productive, you should implement batch processing into your schedule.
Set aside specific times to do certain tasks. Work on that ONE task without distractions for a period of time, let’s say 30 minutes. Take a break to give your mind a break.
Let me give you an example of batching.
When I managed a staff of medical billers, I had them post their payments in batches. They were to post payments from insurance companies and patients to balance with the total deposit amount. Within their payment batches there would be some line items on insurance explanation of benefits that would deny a claim. They were to mark the charge as denied and move to the next payment. When they remained focused at the task at hand in posting only the payments, they completed their task timely.
Then, they had a block of time devoted to their denied claims. They were able to group similar denials and work on similar tasks more quickly and more effectively.
Every time a staff member would get distracted and not work in this order, they would be less productive.
Research shows that people can concentrate on one task at a time. So if you think you are multitasking, you really are task switching. Mentally, you can only do one task at a time.
An example you hear all the time is “Don’t text and drive.” The research is there. Mentally we can’t focus on texting and focus on driving. We are either focused on one thing or the other, not both.
Think of how you can batch. Block off time in your schedule for particular projects. Think of ways to eliminate (or at the very minimum reduce) your distractions during your allotted project time. The more you do it, and reduce your urge to multitask, the more productive you will be.