To Multitask or Not to Multitask?: That is the Question

First, let me say that this is one of the most powerful books I read this year — not only was it well-written and simple, it was also a lot of fun and packed with tons of exercises: Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland. If you haven’t heard of it or read it yet, I highly recommend giving it a read.

The book contains a wealth of valuable content about “pure” Scrum and why Agile methodology matters in the workplace. In this post, I’ll focus only on multitasking using an exercise provided in the book.

Let me explain why I value this topic. When I started working as a data analyst, I received many ad-hoc requests that needed to be completed within a reasonable time frame. As soon as I received a request, I started to play with data, since I was quite excited to see the problem itself and design the solution in my mind. Naturally, I moved that ticket to the “in progress” section on the Kanban board and then came back to another ticket that I had already started previously. The result? A huge increase in the production of cortisol, the stress hormone, as well as a feeling of mental exhaustion.

Whether it makes sense or not, multitasking is a part of our lives. For instance, it seems like a must-have skill for almost any job. If you have ever applied for a position on a job portal, you know what I mean. However, we humans aren’t technically made for it. Let’s explore this together to understand why we are not designed for multitasking.

📎 The only things you need for this exercise are a timer, a pen, and a piece of paper.

Ready?

On your paper, we will create a table that consists of three columns and ten rows: numbers from 1-10, Roman numerals, and Latin letters.

Firstly, we will start the timer and write the numbers, Roman numerals, and Latin letters across columns as can be seen in the image (scenario 1) below.

Now, we will do the same thing, but this time by writing down across rows (scenario 2).

How much time did that take? To be honest, I’ve never met a person where the second scenario took less than the first. So, what was the lesson we learned here?

👌 Focusing on one thing helps you concentrate more, allowing you to get more done in less time.

I’m not trying to convince you that multitasking is a good thing or a bad thing but what I am trying to say here is that switching the focus between contexts causes a loss of time and an increase in stress that can have negative effects on the memory as you’ve just experienced with our simple exercise.

Looking forward to hearing about your own experiences regarding multi- or single-tasking!