Multi-taskers Have Poorer Focus and Retention

“If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both” — Purported Native American Saying

I frequently rail against the evils of multi-tasking. This point was highlighted to me while watching the reality TV show “Canada’s Worst Drivers“. One of the drivers featured was a Toronto real-estate agent that was proud of his ability to drive, smoke, text, and eat simultaneously. Seriously. There was video tape. Is this somebody you’d want on the road next to you and your car full of kids?

He rationalized his behaviour by arguing that he got more done that way. Because he was a busy real-estate agent in a competitive market he had to multi-task in order to get everything done in day that needed to be done. In the next breath he went on to explain how he only ever paid one of his dozens of traffic tickets by always showing up at court and challenging them. My thought was “You might not have to rush around so much if you spend less time in court.”

I had a similar conversation with one of my bosses once. I asked him to give me priorities on the work I’d been assigned. He asked me why I couldn’t multi-task and do it all? I explained that using this strategy would take longer. There is a cost associated with switching contexts. Computers really only do one thing at a time, but they can switch between those tasks so quickly we don’t notice. Research going back to the 1970′s shows that it can take humans as long as fifteen minutes to get back to the point they were in their work after an interruption such as a phone call. People are not computers, we don’t switch between tasks quickly, especially tasks that require deep thought, and we can’t focus on more than one thing at a time.

Now this study (published by the BBC via Lifehacker) shows that multi-taskers fair worse at the skills necessary to multi-tasking such as memory retention and focus in standardized tests. My conclusion, once again, is that people trying to do more than one thing at a time take longer and produce lower quality work.

Being frantically busy is not the same as being effective and efficient.