Do less

Regardless of what we may think or feel, multi-tasking hurts productivity. It’s possible to improve our ability to multi-task, but nothing beats avoiding switching entirely. Regardless of how well you handle multi-tasking, it’s undeniable that you’d be more productive by focusing on one task at a time. So the most direct way to reduce multi-tasking is to simply work on fewer things.

One of the keys to understanding why we struggle with multi-tasking is “attention residue.” In a paper from 2009, Sophie Leroy coined the phrase and explained how task completion and cognitive closure relate to our ability to transition from one task to another. When we aren’t able to fully transition our attention, we can’t fully focus on the new task. So, instead of doing one thing well, we end up doing two things poorly.

While there are several factors at play, for us to fully transition our attention, we need to reach some state of cognitive closure on the task. Otherwise, our brains tend to devote some level of partial attention to the previous task and make it difficult to fully transition our attention to the new task.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t do those other tasks, but instead of working on tasks in parallel, stack them up and only work on one until it’s complete. This is both about doing fewer projects and fewer simultaneous projects. In many cases, this isn’t possible because you may not have control over your workload, but you might be able to gain control by helping management understand that you’ll be more productive if you’re focused on a single task.

The main exception is when you’re blocked. With modern collaboration, you’ll invariably run into cases where you have to wait for someone else. Whether that’s feedback, code reviews, or other input, there will be times when you need to switch tasks because sitting around waiting isn’t productive at all.

The key here is designing your workflow so that you’re switching as effectively as possible. When you’re blocked, depending on how long you expect to be blocked, can you switch and handle some administrative work? Or, if you anticipate being blocked longer, can you switch to a task that’s just big enough that you can complete it during the time you’re waiting? Maybe you could improve your specs or fix some smaller bugs?

What you don’t want to do when you’re blocked is try to start on a second significant task that will run longer and force the work on the two tasks to intertwine. By managing your tasks to fill in downtime, you’ll be able to stay focused on your one most important task with less effort. You’ll also be able to check off those smaller lingering tasks that can otherwise be distracting.

You’ll also have to learn to say no. Or, if you can’t say no, say “yes, but later.” Imagine if you have three tasks for three different people, and each task will take a week of effort. If you do all three in parallel, the best case scenario is that all three people are waiting three weeks. However, given the costs of context-switching, it will likely take even longer. But, if you focus on each task in succession, one person can get their request turned around in a week, one in two weeks, and only the third person has to wait three full weeks. And with that approach, you don’t lose time to context-switching.

Finally, there’s something to be said for inter-mingling efforts and the resulting inspiration and serendipity. With any creative effort, some level of inspiration is the result of cross-pollination of different ideas and approaches that come from exploration. Juggling two significant pieces of work is different from occasionally creating space for your mind to wander and explore new ideas. Multi-tasking isn’t a purely binary decision process. Sometimes, two tasks can be similar enough yet different enough that there’s value in co-mingling the two.

You don’t have to be ruthless about working on tasks in succession. Use your judgment, and be mindful of opportunities when they arise. The goal isn’t to follow a strict set of rules but rather to be deliberate in how you choose to organize your work for the highest productivity. Put yourself in the driver’s seat, and take control of your schedule to manage your work instead of letting it manage you.

Your next steps

1. Try a “yes, but later” approach when requests for additional tasks come in.
2. Be mindful and deliberate about how your organize your work.
3. Aim to reach good stopping points or get cognitive closure on a task before moving on to another one.