Is Multitasking Sabotaging Your Productivity?

If you’re like many people you spend most days multitasking. You’re probably so used to multitasking that you don’t even realize when you’re doing it. After all, it’s a skill many employers look for in their employees.

Many people believe multitasking saves them time. However, there are many reasons why multitasking is bad.

It’s time to stop feeling feeling like you need to constantly be working on 10 different things at once so that you can focus and increase your productivity instead. Focusing lets you concentrate on one task or thought at a time, helping you create a better result for each task.

Why is multitasking bad?

Many people like to multitask because they become bored working on one task at a time. 

Yet when you multitask, you have to switch from task to task. This requires time for your mind to change into the right mindset for the new task. You have to take the time to remember where you left off. 

Review these 5 reasons why multitasking may be interfering with your progress so that you can see where you might need to make some changes.

1. Multitasking leads to attention and memory loss. According to a study by Harvard Professor Clifford Nass, in findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, people who use online social media and other forms of electronic communications have trouble focusing their attention and have lower scores on memory tests.
   
2. Cognitive performance is diminished. A recent study by Zheng Wang, a professor at Ohio State University, showed that multitasking caused students to feel more productive, but showed they were actually reducing their cognitive skills abilities such as studying.
   
3. It turns people off when you are interacting with them. People who multitask often find themselves coming in contact with others. If you only half pay attention to them, answering texts and phone calls while talking to them, you will lose their respect. 
   
4. Multitaskers lose productivity. Switching between tasks is counter-productive. You lose time and concentration every time you switch to a different task.
   
5. Multitaskers are less likely to finish one quality project. They may finish all their tasks for the day, but they will most likely be sub-par than if they had focused solely on one to completion.

Multitasking makes it difficult to focus entirely on each task you are doing. You are thinking about emails you have to respond to when writing a report and the phone calls you need to return even while you are thinking about the next task on your to-do list. This type of working environment doesn’t do anything but cause you stress.

Instead of multitasking among several tasks, you should prioritize your tasks and break them up into workable time chunks.