Being a parent feels synonymous with having excellent multitasking skills. How can you possibly get everything done if you do one thing at a time? But, is multitasking really a skill? The research says no. Multitasking does not help our productivity, it increases our stress, and it harms our memory. Here we will discuss some ways to repurpose your multitasking skills and the benefits of being a one-task operator.
Women have more multitasking skills than men: fact or fiction?
Research shows that the majority of people believe there are gender differences in multitasking skills. And of those who believe in gender differences, 80% agree that women are better than men at multitasking. But is that so?
Fiction: Women are not better multitaskers
There are no biological or innate differences in the ability to multitask. Women are not more adapted to or better at multitasking. So where does the stereotype that women are better at multitasking than men come from? Perhaps from the fact that women tend to multitask more than men or perhaps because one of the most common forms of multitasking is more likely to be performed by females – doing housework while taking care of children.
There are however actual changes that occur in your brain’s structure when you are a parent. You may have heard of or experienced “pregnancy brain” but the changes are not only for women and they are not only negative!
Disadvantages of multitasking
First and foremost, your brain does not multitask. It switches between tasks and each time you switch you are less observant and prone to error. Second, you store memory when your brain is at rest, so if your brain is constantly active, it is less able to do the necessary tidying up and organization.
When you are working on a task your brain is following a certain set of rules and working towards a goal. You are writing a work email to a potential client – you use professional language, make sure the whole team is on copy, and triple check that you have attached the right presentation. You receive a text from your friend about dinner on Saturday – you use informal language, ask if her sick child is better, and then set a reminder to get the ingredients on Friday to make the dessert for Saturday. You can switch between these two tasks, and two states of mind, but each time you switch your brain has to adapt and remember the rules of the game. This switching increases your mental load because each time you have to decide when to switch and remember where you left off.
Ways to reduce multitasking
At Work
Not to add another thing to your to-list, but taking the time to schedule your day has been shown to increase productivity. Set up time blocks in your schedule to spend on certain types of tasks, on certain clients, on certain projects. Think not only about the time it takes to complete a task, but about the mental energy needed. Maybe it’s best to schedule your high mental energy tasks in the morning and your low mental energy tasks during the post-lunch digestion lull.
Can you check your email every 30 minutes? Can you turn off notifications? Can you set yourself “away” from the office chat periodically throughout the day? Even if it is short intervals, you will see the benefits of not having to switch between tasks, remember where you left off, and pick up the pieces.
At Home
It may be too ambitious to park your phone, but if this is a goal for your current or future teenagers setting the stage for no-notification or no-screen time can be useful. Maybe you can start small: no phones at the dinner table. Literally, they need to be in another room.
Remember the days when everyone had a landline. The intrigue and suspense of the phone ringing. You probably had a cordless home phone. But imagine back in time to it being attached to the wall. You would have had to stay in your kitchen, office or other shared living space every time you had a conversation. What a lack of privacy! But also a sense of community. Everyone knew when the phone rang, who was calling and then could hear parts of the conversation.
Maybe you can try to recreate this. Don’t carry your phone around with you as you change rooms in the house. Find a central location where you can leave it, with a ringer on in case someone calls, but perhaps with notifications for the group chat silenced, so you are not running over every 2 minutes.
Motion and creativity: Get in the flow
We know that a change of scenery or getting outside is often a good way to reset. But have you ever noticed that you are more creative or have more innovative ideas when you are in motion? A range of different studies have looked into this phenomena- is it just for athletes? Is it only for walking or do more strenuous activities provoke ideas too?
First of all, physical activity is related to creativity. Even in school-aged children the more physically fit children performed better in creative and cognitive tasks. And it does not matter if you move your arms in circles, walk or run. The important part is that you decide how to move.
You want your brain to do just a tiny bit of work on the movement part, but not to really multitask by following rules on how to move, or where to move. Think of the difference between if you were playing tennis or on a run. In both situations you are moving, but in tennis you have to move towards the ball, whereas in running you just have to move one foot in front of the other. It is when your body is on autopilot that you are able to make those new connections and think outside of the box.
Give it a try! Let us know how it goes!
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