Multitasking: The practice of almost completing a lot of things

Falling squarely into the highly productive category herself, my colleague Amy Knox forwarded an article to the staff titled 7 Things Highly Productive People Do by Ilya Pozin.  Always looking for tips and tricks I read it with anticipation.

Some of the tips were basic things that, if you read lists like this you’ve come to expect.  For example, an old favorite, create small attainable tasks for yourself instead of a great big complex one.  I, personally, enjoy the satisfaction of checking things off my To-Do list and have been known to add a task to my list simply to experience the momentary feeling of satisfaction that comes with checking them complete. Shower, Check!

However, there were some new and interesting tidbits on this list.  Specifically, how detrimental multitasking can be to your productivity.  As a project manager, multitasking is almost written into my job description.  Or is it? I have to wonder if the expectation that we need to multitask is hurting us – both as a profession and as a society?  Is the expectation self-imposed (or self-inflicted)?  The article recommends turning off your email for an hour – or (gasp!) three.  Could you do that?  As a company we are making a concerted effort to update the status message within our IM or sending out an email to staff (heads down – trying to concentrate – emergencies only) when we can’t have interruptions.  Doesn’t the fact that we have to tell people we are concentrating indicate that most of the time we don’t have the luxury of being able to do so?

The article states that when you multitask, your IQ drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, 5 for women. Besides explaining a lot about my husband, I found this kind of shocking.  It feels like a catch-22: I don’t want to shut off communication avenues in case I am needed, however, I could be a more productive employee if I did.

Is the pendulum of multitasking creeping toward its edge? How far will the propensity to multitask have to go before the pendulum swings back?  Personally, I am going  to be better about using the offline mode with email.  Checking email hourly is reasonable and a solid first step in inching my pendulum back toward center.  I’m curious what the expectation is in your work environment – and does it differ from what you feel comfortable doing?

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