“Multitasking Is a Myth.”

Last week, I tried something I almost never do. I tried answering emails while listening to a podcast. It went so terribly that I stopped after a few minutes. I kept having to rewind the podcast and my emails were written at a snail’s pace. This was a good reminder to myself of how much more effective it is to focus on one task at a time. 

I still occasionally meet people who say they can multitask well, but experience shows me otherwise. Rather than dive into the research on the ineffectiveness of multitasking, I thought I’d share a great little experiment from Michael Veltri’s book, The Mushin Way to Peak Performance, to show this concept. 

Take out a blank piece of paper and a timer. On the paper you will write the words, “Multitasking is a myth.” However, write one letter at a time and under each letter, write the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. in sequential order. You will alternate between two tasks, writing letters and numbers. Be sure to label each space between the words and give the period a number as well. You should get to 23 (which is the number of all the characters together, the letters, the spaces, and the period). It will look something like this: 

Multi
12345   …and so on.

When you’re ready, start your timer and begin.

Now, do the same task without alternating, and time yourself. Write out the sentence, “Multitasking is a myth.” in one go and then write out the numbers 1-23.

Here are my times: 

Exercise #1: 1:13
Exercise #2: 0:27

What are yours?

This week, I invite you to ask: 

What are the costs of multitasking in my life? To myself? To others? In what one area am I committed to cultivating deep focus and presence instead? In what area am I okay with multitasking for now?

God bless,
Dan