Getting things done

I'm really good at multitasking. Really, I am. Um, but sometimes I also have a little trouble getting things done. Wonder if the two are related....

There's a lot of information out there that indicates multitasking is pretty much a myth. According to San Diego Union-Tribune, our brains appear to have a finite amount of space for tasks requiring attention, and when we try to perform two demanding tasks simultaneously, we do neither one as well as we do each one alone. And if we take on three tasks, one of them gets dropped. Furthermore, Seattle Times says,

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.

These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.

While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress.

Stress. Yup.

There is hope, though. According to an excellent article on Lifehacker, it is possible to rebuild our attention span and re-learn to focus. The first step, apparently, is to have fewer of those bursts of information. Well…okay, I do have a business coach/speaker/effectiveness expert friend who insists his students turn off the "you've got mail" alert sound while they're working, and he himself actually only listens to voice mails and returns phone calls twice a day! And, yes, I've learned that I have to quit out of my email client altogether if I have a big deadline. I can't leave it running in the background because I'll check it. Regularly. And often.

So if my choices are to know instantly when LinkedIn has some updates I might be interested in, or to actually finish that 500-word article in under three days, I guess I'll choose the productive route. Just don't be too shocked if I'm not particularly cheerful about it, okay?

I'll keep you informed on how well it's paying off!