The Multitasking Epidemic: How to Fight it, How to Master it
By Kristen Walker
Is technology scattering your focus? Levo’s Kristen Walker talks about way to learn to minimize the interruptions of technology in the second in her three-part series on communication technology.
Women are often known and praised for their multitasking abilities. As Gen Y women who have gown up in the technology era, we have by necessity become adept at observing, analyzing, and reacting to several forms of incoming information at once, what with TV, ads, cell phones, email, and, you know, real life all demanding our attention all at once.
I know I’m not the only one who has simultaneously g-chatted with my best friend, text messaged my mom, browsed Facebook on my laptop, scrolled through the day’s new headlines, and updated my Twitter status – and I still managed to fast-forward through every commercial break during my latest DVR’d episode of “New Girl.” If this sounds at all familiar, then you’ve mastered the multi-focused approach required by today’s Millennials to keep up with the constant stream of communication invading our lives.
What about at work?
It’s a given that you’ve mastered the art of multitasking in your everyday life, but have you ever stopped to consider how this may be affecting your productivity at work?
In the first article in this series, you learned how to prevent work from encroaching on your personal life by limiting how often you check your work phone or email when away from the office. Following those tips will surely help clear your mind during your off hours, but unfortunately none of us can escape the rapid influx of messages while at work.
You know the story: you’re laser-focused on a project that’s due to your boss before the end of the day and just figured out how to tackle the next section when, ding, you get an incoming email. Your natural reaction is most likely to stop what you’re doing and skim the contents of the message, which means diverting attention from the task at hand.
So what’s the problem?
In the psychological study I referenced in the first article in this series, “The Impact of E-mail Communication on Organizational Life,” the author cites an experiment that showed that “switching between tasks resulted in a delay before engaging effectively in a new task, even if the worker had been previously engaged in the task. Each fragmentation to a task adds to the total time required to complete it.”
Every time you shift your attention from your current project to your inbox – which could easily happen several times an hour or more – you delay the completion of the project because it takes extra time for you to fully engage once again. And considering that the majority of the emails you receive on a daily basis don’t require an immediate response, you could be wasting a significant amount of time.
To add in another layer of chaos, we surely can all admit to occasionally using work time to discuss non-work related topics with coworkers or to communicate with our friends, family, doctors, etc., be it by phone, text, instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter, etc.With work and personal devices constantly beeping and buzzing, demanding our attention all day long, it’s a wonder we get any work done at all!
None of these interruptions would be such a hindrance to productivity if we didn’t feel so pressured to respond to every incoming message immediately. As the Erasmus study notes, most email recipients feel compelled or obligated to “answer messages the minute they arrive.” While this rapid exchange of information may be beneficial to your company as a whole, it can cause undue stress and lessened productivity in individual employees.
But what can I do about it?
Unfortunately most bosses won’t agree to let you hole up in a room alone with no means of contact with the outside world until you finish your current project. When you’re surrounded by communication technology all day, it can be nearly impossible to entirely cut out all distractions and interruptions, so here are a few new habits you can adopt to make sure technology is making your work like easier, not more chaotic:
- Commit to reading and answering emails at set times each day, such as once an hour on the hour. In the in-between times, shut down your email so you can fully focus on your current task. The Erasmus study suggests that there are “two type of responders: those who responded as soon as they received an e-mail (constant responders) and those who delayed their responses to some later time when a number of messages had accumulated (batched responders).” Most batched responders experienced fewer workplace interruptions and reported a decreased feeling of disorganization. If you’re a constant responder, it may be more beneficial for your sanity to try out the batched approach and see if it helps you feel less stressed.
- If you’re really focused on a project and you’re on a tight deadline, send an email to your boss and coworkers letting them know you’re going into “stealth mode” for a few hours, and ask them not to contact you unless it’s urgent. Then log out of your email, power down your phone, X out of your Internet browser, and turn off any other mode of electronic communication until you’re done with your project.
- Allow yourself two short breaks each day – one in the morning and one in the afternoon – to communicate with colleagues and personal contacts about non-work related subjects. If your best friend text messaged about weekend plans or your mom emailed reminding you to call and wish your grandma a happy birthday, wait until your designated break to read and respond to these messages so they don’t mentally jog you out of your current mindset.
- Keep a notepad next to your keyboard to write down “to-do list” reminders as they pop into your mind, whether it’s responding to a coworker’s email or paying your rent online. It happens to all of us – no matter how absorbed you may be in a project, you may suddenly think of some task you forgot to do and be tempted to drop everything and take care of the issue ASAP. But instead of completely disengaging from your project, jot down a brief reminder in your notepad. You can deal with this during your next email or personal break.
Forbes.com accurately describes our rapidly changing work environment: “In today’s age of technology, we’re expected to work quicker, think faster and be more productive. Between your desk computer, laptop and iPad – not to mention your smart phone that’s within sight at all times or your intra-office Instant Messenger that constantly blinks in the corner of your screen – information is currently being received and disseminated through our high-tech devices.”
It’s easy to feel mentally scattered in this type of environment, and it’s a safe bet that this technology boom won’t slow down anytime soon. So by getting in the habit of minimizing these interruptions early on in your career, you’ll be saving yourself a lot of mental stress in the long run.
