I always raise an eyebrow when I see job postings with \u201cmultitasking\u201d listed as one of the required skills. I mean, job postings are already a travesty on their own. Most of them sound like recruitment profiles for some sort of corporate fight club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when I see \u201cmultitasking,\u201d I can usually tell right away that this may not be the kind of job people should be rushing to apply for. Why? Because multitasking isn\u2019t really a skill. More often, it\u2019s a fail-safe for companies that are disorganized, rely on outdated processes, or pull deadlines out of thin air instead of consulting the people who actually have to meet them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You see, multitasking sounds<\/em> productive. Multitaskers are the kind of people who answer emails during meetings, check messages during phone calls, and eat lunch while reviewing reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Very impressive. Very dedicated. Very likely to end in mistakes, burnout, and someone sending the wrong attachment to the wrong person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of what we call multitasking is not actually multitasking. It is switching. Your brain is not doing five things at once. It is jumping from one thing to another, then back again, then briefly wondering why you opened that spreadsheet, then checking Teams, then forgetting the sentence you were writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality is that you can only multitask effectively when the second task is not cognitively demanding. That\u2019s why you can drive and listen to music, or walk and chew gum. One task is taking up most of your mental bandwidth; the other is just along for the ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But answering emails during a strategy meeting or reviewing a report while taking a call is not <\/em>multitasking\u2014it\u2019s task switching\u2026 or juggling, if you prefer a more fun analogy. Basically, it\u2019s your brain being overwhelmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research on task switching has shown that moving between tasks creates a heavy cognitive load, especially when the tasks are complex or unfamiliar. In other words, every switch forces your brain to reorient itself, reload the rules, remember where it was, and pretend it is fine. And it is not fine. It is screaming internally, \u201cInformation overload!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, why do workplaces still worship multitasking like it\u2019s a sacred virtue? Let\u2019s discuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is probably the biggest myth. I call it the \u201czombie myth,\u201d because it keeps coming up and refuses to die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue is that being busy and being productive are not the same thing. You can spend an entire day switching between tasks and not actually completing any one of them\u2014and still finish the day exhausted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Multitasking creates the feeling<\/em> of productivity without the results<\/em> of productivity. It gives you the emotional satisfaction of doing many things. This is why someone can say, \u201cI worked all day and feel like I got nothing done,\u201d and be completely right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, some people are better at handling interruptions than others. Some people can shift gears more smoothly. Some people recover faster after being pulled away from a task. But that does not make it a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even people who seem good at multitasking are often just good at moving quickly between tasks. That can be useful in certain roles, especially when the work involves short, simple, or urgent tasks\u2014like reception work, customer service, emergency response, and event planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, rapid switching still has a mental cost. The person may look calm, but their brain is still doing extra work. And their hearts are probably racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of multitasking happens because priorities are unclear\u2014or badly prioritized. People are switching constantly because they are being pulled in too many directions by too many people who all believe their request deserves more attention. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then we wonder why people make mistakes. The problem isn\u2019t, \u201cMy employees get distracted so easily!\u201d Sometimes the real problem is, \u201cI don\u2019t know how to organize projects, prioritize tasks, or coordinate people effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, I said it. I\u2019m placing the onus on the manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some managers praise instant replies and reward constant availability. The employee who responds to every email within three minutes is seen as engaged, responsive, and \u201con top of things.\u201d Meanwhile, the person who is actually focused on a complex task and does not answer immediately because they are protecting their concentration can be seen as unresponsive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast responses are useful sometimes. No one wants a customer issue ignored for three business days because \u201cGreg was focusing on a task.\u201d However, not every message is an emergency and not every email needs an immediate answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your team is expected to respond instantly all day, guess what will happen? They will struggle to do work that requires actual concentration. Their brains cannot settle into a task if they are constantly waiting for the next interruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maya is overloaded with work. She is jumping from one task to another\u2014finishing a report, answering calls, uploading a document to Teams, and sending an email to a teammate. She\u2019s frazzled, so chances are the email she sends is unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her teammate then sends a follow-up email because they didn\u2019t understand her original message. Meanwhile, everyone and their grandmother get CCed, so they are all pulled into the confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Far-fetched? Not as much as you might think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When your brain is overloaded from multitasking, you skim instead of read. You reply before understanding. You miss tone, forget decisions, and ask questions that were already answered three emails ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can guarantee that somewhere in your Sent folder is a message you answered too quickly and then immediately regretted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I already know what some of you are going to say: \u201cIt\u2019s not possible to work on one task at a time. We\u2019re too busy. There\u2019s too much to do. The emails never stop. A very demanding but very lucrative client needs the spreadsheet by lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I get it. However, you can<\/em> control the work environment enough to prevent people from being constantly overloaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Clarify what matters on a day-by-day basis.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not next week, next month, or next quarter. If people have ten priorities, help them identify the top two\u2014that\u2019s it. Otherwise, they will bounce between everything and finish nothing properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ask: \u201cWhat needs attention today, and what can wait?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Protect focus time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If a task requires analysis, writing, planning, reviewing, or careful decision-making, it needs protected, uninterrupted focus time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tell your team to block off at least one hour, and make it clear that this time should not be interrupted unless a genuine emergency comes up. That time should be spent on one complex task, and one task only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Does it really need to be a meeting?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Before scheduling a meeting, ask:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The point is not to ban meetings. The point is to stop treating every decision, idea, or problem as something that requires 18 people to interrupt their day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Multitasking is not productive. So before praising someone for being \u201cgreat at multitasking,\u201d ask why they have to multitask so much in the first place. Are they actually being \u201cefficient,\u201d or are they just surviving a disorganized system? Because if your workplace depends on everyone juggling flaming torches all day, the problem is not that someone eventually drops one. The problem is that you handed them the flaming torches in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Multitasking is not a skill, nor is it a sign that someone is productive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-productivity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions\/875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Myth 1: Multitasking helps people get more done.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Myth 2: Some people are just naturally great at multitasking.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Myth 3: Multitasking is necessary because everything is urgent.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Myth 4: Fast responses mean good performance.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Myth 5: Multitasking only affects the person doing it.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What managers can\u2014and should\u2014do instead<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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