Hey You! Multi-Tasker. Focus for a Second.
Stumbled across this blog post over on the Harvard Business Blog by Ron Ashkenas this morning. The topic? One we’re all too familiar with: multi-tasking. If you’re anything like me, you have your Twitter account, email, Facebook , multiple-windows, and more going all at once throughout your work day (and often into your evening and family time). And like me, you’ve probably asked more than once, “Are these things making more productive or less productive?” Often, I simply skip over that question, rationalizing that my business lives and dies by an Internet presence. But in reality, I’m probably co-dependent.
Not surprisingly, studies are showing that multi-tasking makes you less productive and effective. Ron highlights a recent study by Stanford University:
Despite starting the research on 100 college students with the hypothesis that multitaskers had some special abilities, the study found that multitaskers were actually quite ineffective at managing information, maintaining attention, and getting results. Compared to study participants who did things one task at a time, they were mediocre. While a single study of 100 students doesn’t prove anything definitively, it does reinforce what many of us have probably suspected – that trying to do too many things at once often means getting none of them done well.
I often see friends tweet that they are signing off for a while because they need to focus. I do the same thing. When I’m getting serious on a project for a client, I go dark on most of my social networking clients and email. So, intuitively we all know that multi-tasking doesn’t really help us. We don’t need Stanford University to tell us that.
Here are some of the things I do that help:
- I hide or close down all my 3rd party applications
- I put in my headphones or something to drown out the world (especially useful when working at home with a rambunctious 3 year old!)
- I close my email client
- I hide my iphone
- I get to work
In order to pacify my co-dependent social networking needs, I come up for air every half-hour or so and catch up on my Twitter, Facebook, etc. Then I do the above again, and settle back down for more focused work.
How do you manage your virtual world, and what are some of your experiences with the marriage of social media, multi-tasking, and your work?
