Until six months ago, Bhumika Sharma considered herself an excellent manager of time. Then she heard about monotasking, or focusing on one task at a time, at a productivity workshop at work. For this 37-year-old mother of two, monotasking helped her make the most of her day. It is a method of time management that encourages you to concentrate on specific tasks starting with the difficult ones for a segment of time.
Multitasking was Sharma’s approach so far by juggling two, three, and sometimes more tasks at once, but it left her tired, distracted and frustrated.
“Broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson once said ‘Multitasking is the ability to screw everything up simultaneously.’ That’s how I felt all the time until I learnt a different way. Monotasking is life-changing,” says Gurugram-based Sharma.
The bane of multitasking
Multitasking encourages the ‘I can do it all’ belief system. Actually, it lowers productivity and causes burnout.
“Monotasking, on the other hand, lets you get through tasks more mindfully. By reducing the stress associated with dealing with several things at a time, it promotes a healthy immune system and gut health, thereby reducing aches and pains, improving mood, sleep and physical vitality. An overall sense of well-being is a given. Do the difficult tasks first. Psychology is about reviving and restructuring.
“The idea is to finish one task with steadfast focus by getting into a state of ‘flow’, an
idea proposed by psychologist Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi in the 70s. Flow is about inculcating deep energised focus where tuning out of distractions is easy and getting the work done is a cakewalk,” says Delhi-based physiatrist Bimal Dayal. In multitasking, the left and right sides of the brain’s prefrontal cortex work independently. But they work in unison when you concentrate on one thing at a time. Even though it takes a second to make a thoughtful transition, every switch takes brain effort. In the long run, all the seconds add up to slow down the brain. Multitasking takes up to 40 per cent longer to finish the same job than mono-tasking. Switching also makes the brain use up more glucose, leading to exhaustion at the end of the day,” says Dayal.
A 2020 study published in the journal Nature holds heavy media multitasking responsible for attention lapses and forgetfulness. Another study published in the journal Plos One points to media multitasking changing the part of the brain’s structure that regulates blood pressure, heart rate, decision-making, empathy, impulse control and emotional regulation.
Stanford University researchers found that people bombarded with multiple streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as efficiently as those who complete one task at a time. Another study by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London noted that multitasking leads to greater decrease
in productivity than smoking marijuana.
“Since multitasking requires a lot more energy, it adversely impacts three brain networks dealing with cognition and attention—the frontoparietal control network that controls fluid intelligence such as the power of reasoning, problem-solving and the ability to think broadly; the dorsal attention network responsible for directing one’s focus on a particular task; and the ventral attention network that detects stimulus-driven attention. In habitual multitaskers, there is a disruption between these networks, which impacts information-processing,” says Dayal.
Mono manual
Monotasking begins with reconditioning the mind to accept a new way of thinking. By inculcating self-awareness, habit loops of doing various tasks at the same time are broken. The next time you find yourself chasing your tail, pause, take a few deep breaths, and remind yourself that there’s another way of being. To help you navigate this new way of operating, here are a few measures to master the art of monotasking.
Prioritise deep work Instead of scuttling from one task to another, focus on one job at a time. “In monotasking, you work for shorter blocks, say 20 to 30 minutes. Deep work, a concept fundamental to monotasking, was introduced by computer science professor Cal Newport, who suggested that if one wishes to succeed at tasks, log out of all communication tools and train focus to get fewer tasks done that are qualitatively better than several that add no value to your day,” says Gurugram-based business and leadership coach Rahul Gupta. Such is the power of this technique that Bill Gates has been doing this for years—retreating into a cabin in the woods far away, just to read and think big thoughts. It was during one such break in 1995 that he conceived the Internet Explorer.
Distraction-less spaces
Gloria Mark from the department of informatics at the University of California found in her research that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to return to an original task after an interruption. When people at workplaces were monitored, it was found that employees switched between tasks, on average, every three minutes and five seconds, and roughly half of these were self-interruptions. Find a quiet place, put away those gadgets, remove physical clutter, pen down the priorities of the day
and get to them. In the absence of distractions, focus flourishes and the brain’s neural network works more optimally in sending task-related coherent messages.
Zero-in your peak productivity window “Plan tasks around the time you’re most energetic. Traditional working hours don’t work for everybody; for instance, mornings may not work as well for you as they do for someone else. Once you’ve identified this time frame, schedule the top two tasks within it. Next, select the second-most productive time window and get two more done,” says Gupta.
Track those detrimental habits
Notice how going off-beam affects your performance. For instance, does a nap energise you or make you lazy? Does keeping your cellphone on your desk help or distract you? Do you procrastinate a bit much? Are you prone to making excuses? Once you’ve identified the habits that keep you from achieving your goals, you can correct the course. But remember the golden words: one task at a time.
By reducing the stress associated with dealing with several things at a time, monotasking promotes a healthy immune system and gut health