Why Monotasking Is The New Black

Multitasking is the biggest new brain myth on the block. It's time to get rid of it and replace it with a far more efficient method of getting more done - monotasking. Multitasking is trying to focus on more than one thing at a time. Sure you can drink coffee while walking and talking to a colleague and crossing the road, but you're not paying focused attention to any one of those things, including your colleague.

One of the reasons multitasking has become so pervasive is because everyone's doing it. Ticking items off our to-do lists makes us feel good - which adds to the delusion. We are well aware that using our mobile phones while driving is dangerous, yet over 70% of us admit to doing it. The risks are ignored because multitasking has become the 'norm'; it's considered a basic work requirement. Many job adverts even state that multitasking skills are desired.

What's going on in the brain when we multitask?

Our brain develops selective focus, so we pay attention to what is most important to us at any given moment while being alert to other things happening on the periphery.

When we direct our focused attention, we use part of our prefrontal cortex - the highly specialised part of our frontal lobes used for higher order executive thoughts such as planning, organising and regulating emotion. This area has what can only be considered as a couple of design flaws: it's small, highly energy demanding and can only handle a small amount of information at any one time. That's why the number of thoughts we can hold 'front of mind' at any given time is around seven. As the ideas get more complex, the space available reduces. When it comes to focused attention, there is only room for one.

When we attempt to multitask, our obliging brain attempts to help by giving one task to each hemisphere. The trouble is, the brain can still only pay attention to one at a time, so the brain task switches very, very fast giving us the illusion that we are paying attention to two things simultaneously.

This can be made more obvious when we look at optical illusions. Whichever you see, you can only see one or the other image at a time, not both. Multitasking is the one brain function that the more we practice, the worse we get! Research has shown that chronic media multitaskers fragment their attention so much that they perform worse even when trying to monotask.

The outcome of multitasking

Multitasking fragments our attention - a quick email response here, a two-minute conversation there, we skim information and only grab the headlines.

The cognitive cost includes poorer memory, mental fatigue, reduced efficiency, effectiveness and innovation. People tend to make more mistakes and miss opportunities.

Overall, multitasking increases risk of burnout, damaged relationships and poorer performance. It is hardly the time and energy-saving solution we thought it might be.

Multitasking can cause us to make up to 50% more mistakes and take 50% longer to complete our work, which is equivalent to roughly a 25% drop in individual productivity over the course of the day. That innocuous two-minute interruption - 'have you got a moment?'- can translate into 24 minutes before you get back to where you were before your train of thought was broken. This is why some days you feel like you've got nothing done yet are exhausted.

Multitasking in an organisation reduces performance further. For example, when we are kept waiting for a piece of work by a multitasking colleague or need a decision to be made to move forward on a new project, so we end up starting something else.

The reality is we cannot multitask. Research has demonstrated that those who believe they are really good at multitasking perform the worst overall. The way to get rid of multitasking is to stop doing it. But just like giving up any habit such as smoking, it's not always easy especially when we are under pressure and the temptation for the brain is to default to the survival route it thinks works best.

Introducing monotasking into the workplace

While we can all try to limit our multitasking tendencies individually, the need to reduce organisational multitasking has to come from the top. Making monotasking the preferred way of doing tasks gives everyone permission to follow suit. Follow these step to get started:

• Prioritise your priorities
  
  Take 10 minutes at the end of each working day to determine your three most important and urgent tasks for the next day and list them in order of priority. Put everything else into a holding pen - those items can wait. Start the next day with your top priority first, and don't move to the second item until the first task is completed.
• Communicate your priorities
  
  Ensure everyone in the office is on the same page and knows which priorities have been agreed on so that there is no temptation to start on something else - this will boost completion rates.
• Practise monotasking
  
  Choose one activity, close the office door, switch the mobile to silent, avoid all interruptions and work on just that one activity for a specified amount of time.

Monotasking leads to more work being completed more quickly, to a higher standard and consumes less energy. Completing our work well feels rewarding, resulting in the brain secreting more dopamine, making us feel good and motivates us to repeat that rewarding activity.

Emotions are contagious, so when we feel good, others will too, and the working atmosphere becomes more positive and vibrant. Being in a more positive mood opens our mind to enhanced innovative and creative thinking, more efficient problem-solving and decision-making. Working our brain in the way it was intended to isn't just a better way of working; it leads to creating a high performance workplace. That's why monotasking is the new black.