To do two things at once is to do neither. (Publilius Syrus)

I’ve been scurrying around trying to get everything done at once these days. “There’s just so much to do,” I keep saying. But I’ve found that in the last week, I’ve done less than I usual. That’s because while trying to preform one task, I’m constantly thinking about the other tasks I need to do. This slows me down and causes me to loose focus.

Multitasking is often praised in our society. I find myself making fun of my husband’s inability to do it all the time. Is multitasking all it’s cracked up to be? Is your life any better because you can do a bunch of things at once? Has that given you any more time in your day to do more or do you just find yourself with more and more to do?

Technology has made it possible for us to do a lot more than we could before. We can catch up on phone calls while driving, chat with our friends on the computer at work (I know you do it), and check our email fifty times a day. We assume that doing two things at once helps us get more done, but studies have shown that the opposite is true. When thrown off task by emails or phone calls or whatever else distracts us, people on average take ten to fifteen minutes to return to their original task.

I’ve seen this in my own life. When I’m writing and the little envelop at the top of my computer screen lets me know that I have a new email, I’ll often stop to check it. Checking my email almost always leads me down the road to distraction. I start reading my favorite blogs and checking websites for writing jobs. Before I know it, thirty minutes have gone by.

The human brain as magnificent it is–or isn’t in my case–is only designed to perform one task at a time. When it tries to do two at a time it doesn’t know what to focus on. This causes delays in decision making and reaction times, which can be dangerous especially when driving.

Now that I’ve realized that multitasking is not helping me get more done, I’ve decided to focus on doing one thing at a time. Doing one thing at a time simplifies your life and helps you complete tasks more quickly. Once that task is completed you can check it off your list and move on to the next one.

Photo by Or Hiltch

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