Does Multitasking Improve Your Productivity?

About This Episode

Now, here’s the thing! If you have known me longer than the 10 seconds that we are here, you know that early in this year, I graduated with my PhD in Japan.

And I did that while also taking care of my two kids and pregnant. And also doing a part-time job as a research associate on the campus. So to say I was always busy with deadlines is not my thing! Cos, I don’t like how we label being “busy” as a good thing. Busy with work, busy with kids. And sometimes by staying busy is unhealthy and can be counterproductive.

Therefore, instead of aiming to fill up every minute of your life with “mindless” busy work. There’s a better way to live, which is by living with purpose, priority and passion. It’s not easy, but it is doable; it is something that everyone should aim towards in this life.

One step to start going into that direction of living with purpose, priority, and passion is working lesser and smarter. Not harder!

Especially as you have been gaining more and more responsibilities throughout the years; having kids, becoming a more senior employee, taking that job offer, you’ll maybe be spinning more plates than what you’ve been used to.

Before we head on to the things myths when it comes to productivity advice, let’s be clear on the definition of productivity.

As being described by The Oxford Dictionary, productivity is the effectiveness of a productive effort.

In other words, the ability to produce goods or any output in a lesser time.

Therefore, being productive does not mean that you have to spend more time to get all of the things done. It is your ability to produce something well enough in a limited amount of time.

So now we’ve got clear on the definition of productivity, I want to share some of the myths about productivity and being productive that has been popularized over the years.

THE PRODUCTIVITY MYTHS NO. 1: Multitasking So That You Can GET MORE DONE all at once!

I know this is not a piece of popular advice among moms. But trust me for a second now.

As moms, we are always proud that we could multitask and do things much better than any other people in the world!

Don’t get me wrong. I love multitasking too! When it comes to cooking. I want several meals being done at the same time.

So on the stove, I might have two pots cooking something, maybe some vegetable, and on another, I might be cooking some protein. Oh and not to forget, I put something on the oven too, all this done all at once! Oh, did I mention?

Sometimes I do these while also listen to an audiobook. I want to get it ALLLLL DONE. Fast!

So why am I saying not to multitask when I was also doing it?

This is a subject that I have been thinking about over and over again throughout my life.

TO MULTITASK OR NOT TO MULTITASK?

Then, what I found is this simple thing. It’s when I am having multi-focus is when things get really unproductive.

So then, I made clear boundaries on when it is “acceptable” to multitask and when it is better to single-task so that I don’t have this multi-focus in whatever I want to get done.

I found that multitasking in my work towards achieving my goals is not acceptable. Stay away by all means. This is because this is the “power hour”, this is your source of energy, you must do your best in it. Be mindful!!

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The MOST IMPORTANT THING. The “golden ticket” to success kind of activities could bring me a step closer to my goals; this is when I make my most effort in single-tasking to have a maximum focus on it!

So when I am doing activities such as writing for the blog, creating a course outline, writing e-mails to podcast guests, or even researching a content idea on the internet, or whatever, I try to be more aware, mindful and focus on what I want to get done during a certain period of time.

And really get that ONE thing done! It will actually take longer to finish all of this work if we keep on switching between tasks.

For example, as you are writing your e-mail, you thought of a sentence, maybe a word came up, so you quickly want to check on the internet whether what is true or not, and then, while you are on the internet, you stumble upon a fascinating article, and you start to click on it. Then, an e-mail notification pop-up and you go back to your email, and it’s from a different person, and your start thinking about what to reply to that second e-mail! HAH!

It’s tiring.

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So, is this the way of living, a working life that you imagine doing for the rest of your life? Having a lesser and lesser attention span.

Therefore, pay full attention to one task, put a time limit, and focus on one task. Your ability to focus will increase over time if you attempt to complete just one task at a time.

Studies show that media multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The Stanford researchers who have done this study also found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one task to another; they actually perform worse than those who complete one task at a time. It negatively impacts our productivity.

So when is it acceptable to do multiple tasks at once? Because you might be wondering why you are good at multitasking, but why are “productive gurus” like me; always advise stopping multitasking?

Here’s what I found and live by.

I found that when the tasks are similar and repetitive because I have done them thousands of times, such as cooking or folding laundry, it is still acceptable to multitask.

Especially when you are cooking from the same recipe that you have cooked thousands of times, or folding the laundry millions of times throughout your life, and if you are like me, who is juggling several roles every day, you could use that time to squeeze in some learning by listening to an audiobook. Or whatever, maybe you want to use that time to listen to some music to cheer you up and keep the energy.

As for me, listening to an audiobook gets me going while doing mundane daily repetitive tasks!

This way, the tasks get done faster vs procrastinate in getting it done (because I am just not into folding laundry too much!) Therefore, in this case, multitasking is not something that would be a problem, at least for me.

If you like this episode, check out this next: “How to Accomplish More in Less Time”.

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