Integritus Prime

Often, we are multitasking without even realizing it. We convince ourselves that we are super human beings by being able to do two or more things at once, and are able to get more done in half the time. There are many examples, such as cooking a meal while talking on the cell phone and minding the little one; studying while listening to music; walking or jogging and catching up on our audio book; driving while sending a text message to a friend; or watching television while doing crossword puzzles.

We talked about this in our Beyond Medicine: Mindless to Mindful recently. Let’s look at some negative effects of multitasking. Several studies have shown that high multi taskers, especially at workplaces, are prone to 3 major hazards of multitasking. These are:

1. Reduced Focus and Learning. The brain can function effectively with one and maybe two tasks at a time, depending on the complexity of the tasks. When more tasks are demanded from the brain, it slows down and focus becomes impaired.
2. Impairment of Memory. Due to constant distractions when performing too many tasks at once, memory may get impaired and some crucial steps in a complicated task maybe missed. This leads to delay and inefficiency. In the end, productiveness suffers.
3. Increased Stress Levels. Multi taskers can also suffer from stress. When doing many things at once, nothing may get done on time. This causes stress due to a delay in meeting the deadline. This in turn causes more stress and more multi tasking, so the cycle continues to worsen.

Overall,  multitasking can reduce productivity by up to 40%.

There are high-risk jobs where multi-tasking needs to be avoided completely. Some of these tasks include:

• Working with fast moving machinery, such as industrial saws or meat-cutters
• Driving, especially those driving trucks and public service vehicles
• Roof painters, window washers and others working at a height
• Jobs like garbage collection, logging, or steel and construction works

Any distraction or lapse in the concentration of these workers can lead to harm to themselves, others or both.

Some lower risk tasks include office work, study, reading and some housework. However, even though multitasking while performing low risk work may not cause physical harm to anyone, it still affects the brain and work output as discussed earlier. The effect on focus and memory are real. For example, you go to the laundry room to get something while cooking a meal and realize that the clothes need to be washed. We start the laundry going while the food on the stove gets burned. We are lucky if we didn’t start a fire in the kitchen. Also, we’ve all eaten while watching TV or looking at our phone, but the hazard there is we barely taste or appreciate our food, and often overeat mindlessly.

Multitasking during the COVID-19 pandemic can increase your chances of getting infected. While going out to get emergency supplies or produce, we need to be very mindful of the risk factors for contracting the virus. So, in order to follow all the protocols for prevention, we need to be alert in every moment. For instance, if we are out buying produce, our phone might ring. Instantly we take the cell phone out, pull our masks down and start talking, forgetting that we are now exposed to anyone who may be carrying the virus.

In COVID and non-COVID situations, we are best served by avoiding multitasking and staying present to one task at a time. Share your tips for staying efficient by doing one thing at a time.