Monotasking: Why It Works

It might make you feel important or proficient, but multitasking could be undermining your performance and sense of achievement.

- Dr Jenny Brockis

In a culture defined by goal-setting for everything from food intake to finances, lists have become the new opiate. Or rather, ticking things off lists. Which is why multitasking may be classed as a modern-day addiction. As with other drugs and activities of dependence, it feels good but isn’t particularly good for us. In fact, multitasking may be the worst performance-enhancing strategy ever, because it requires us to use our brain in a way it wasn’t designed for.

No matter how proficient or important it makes you feel (we all do it), it’s time to give up the juggling act and focus on one thing at a time. Enter monotasking – which is exactly as it sounds. While the idea of doing one thing when you could be doing many may sound wasteful, it’s actually a far more efficient way of getting things done. (And do you really want to be that busy?) What’s more, the dopamine elicited by the delayed gratification and larger payoff of meaningful achievements will more than make up for the giddy high of ticking off things that don’t really matter.

Despite the urban myth that women can juggle a million things while men struggle with two, no-one can multitask well. Not if you’re female. Not if you’re young and nimble. Not if you’re Clark Kent wearing your underpants over your trousers.

THE JUGGLING DELUSION