Julie Morgenstern Enterprises

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May 24th, 2010

Studies have shown that it takes your brain four times longer to recognize and process each thing you’re working on when you switch back and forth among tasks. This means that if your day is a random free-for-all in which you hop from task to task, your work will literally take much longer because of the real time you lose switching gears.

Think about it: If it takes you 10 minutes to get oriented to a new task every time you switch gears, and you switch gears 10 times a day, that’s over 1.5 hours of wasted time. Not only does multitasking have a quantitative impact on your day, it can also damage the quality of your work. Science journals have determined that managing....

Tags: multitasking, time management

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Comment posted on 08/01/2010 at 10:21 pm

Thanks for this article. I am hesitant to say "no" at a job interview when they ask if I have a problem multi-tasking because I know they want me to be able to do 10 things at once. But..... I can't do it and be efficient (accuracy and time)at the same time. I have a hard time doing more than one thing at a time and giving it my full attention. Just interupting a task to answer phones (when I was Receptionist/Engineering Assistant) was a problem. I have to take several minutes to get my brain back on what I was doing before the call. Then the next call comes in. Over and over again all day long. Also, is very frustrating. That's where the need for Balance comes in handy.....a walk at lunch works. Thank you for putting some logic to it all. I wish all HR people and managers would realize that it doesn't make one productive. I'm currently reading Making Work Work book. Wonderful advice! I'm going to apply principles on next job when I find one. Thank you KarenAnn

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Comment posted on 10/24/2010 at 10:37 am

Very good information...especially, for those of us who feel like failures if we can't do 100 things at once.

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Comment posted on 10/26/2010 at 02:04 pm

I have always felt ill-equiped to jump from one task to another and have felt that when I do so, I lose productivity in the process. This article makes me feel much better about this perceived shortcoming!