Being distracted is a pandemic that has snuck up on us, and we are only now beginning to realise its impact, not only on our productivity but our mental health as well. I was conducting a survey for a client about employee benefits, it was a simple survey with 7 multiple choice questions, and the application suggested that it should take 4 minutes to complete. It was sent out to 2000 people and 450 people responded. That was actually a pretty good response rate for that organisation. However, what I was shocked about was the average length of time it took for the respondents to complete the survey. It was over 14 minutes. While I do not know the exact circumstances for each of these respondents, I think it is obvious that most of them were distracted, at best, and unable to focus on one task for only 4 minutes, at worst.
For many years, the ability to multitask was written on every second advertisement as a sought-after skill, however, now, the science is clear that it is, in fact, an ability to focus that we should be looking to bring into an organisation if we want to improve productivity. The cost to businesses is a real concern. In my example above, it took the respondents, collectively, 64 hours longer than expected to complete the task. A study at the University of London found that participants who multitasked during cognitive tasks experienced IQ score declines that were like what they’d expect if they had smoked marijuana or stayed up all night. In addition, multitasking in meetings and other social settings indicates low Self and Social Awareness, two emotional intelligence (EQ) skills that are critical to success at work.
These findings should come as a little surprise to us if we use our self-awareness (touché), we know that we are not concentrating when we are emailing someone while on phone call. We are performing both tasks badly. Replying to an email while talking to another person not only means you are likely doing both with the IQ of an 8yo child, but in addition, you are showing disrespect to the colleague on the other end of the line, who, whether they comment or not, knows that you are distracted with something else. Unless you are constructing the email very poorly, it will be obvious by the pause to respond, the long “umms” and asking to repeat questions.
It has been proven that multitasking is impossible for most of us to achieve, and all we are doing is repeatedly task switching and likely leaving one task unfinished. This task switching is exhausting and compounded by the fact that our workday is set up for it. It is an expectation that we are task switching between business as usual, putting out fires, answering emails, responding to instant messages, taking phone calls and picking the kids up from school! It is also exacerbating the propensity to suffer from anxiety as we are not doing any of our tasks well, which results in rework, apologies, and explanations.
One of my priorities for 2024 is to help teams and individuals work with greater focus and reduce overwhelm. If you are interested in learning more about setting up hybrid working environments that create time for focused work, increase productivity and allow for greater connection please reach out: