The case for unitasking: why multitasking doesn't cut it

Trying to do too many things at once makes us less, not more, productive

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 :: By Laureen Lazarovici

Working collaboratively with your team brings many benefits in team engagement and shared ownership for results. But even as unit-based teams change the way teams work and solve problems together, a manager’s daily to-do list might still include reviewing staff schedules, preparing for meetings, analyzing the budget, reviewing performance data, returning incoming phone calls and emails, interviewing that great candidate for a hard-to-fill position, and coaching employees.

All the while, the phone keeps ringing, the email inbox is turning into a sea of red and the Blackberry is buzzing.

How to get it all done? It’s tempting to try to do two (or more) things at once. In other words, to multitask. Doing two things at once doubles your productivity, right?

Wrong.

Recent research suggests that multitasking actually decreases productivity.

People distracted by incoming emails and phone calls suffer a 10-point drop in their IQs, according to the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London. That’s is equivalent to losing a night of sleep.

Multitasking can cause our productivity to go down as much as 40 percent, says a study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Neuroscientist Earl Miller of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found that our brains can only really focus on one or two things at a time. So what seems like multitasking is really task switching, lurching back and forth between tasks inefficiently.

In a recent post on the Harvard Business Review blog, management and leadership consultant Peter Bregman challenged himself to stop multitasking for a week. Here are the six lessons he learned:

• First, it was delightful.


• Second, I made significant progress on challenging projects.


• Third, my stress dropped dramatically.


• Fourth, I lost all patience for things I felt were not a good use of my time.


• Fifth, I had tremendous patience for things I felt were useful and enjoyable.


• Sixth, there was no downside.

So when you get the urge to answer emails during a conference call, or pick up the ringing phone when you are immersed in budget spreadsheets, challenge yourself to resist it. You might be more productive and less stressed out.