Forget multitasking, try monotasking

 

Forget multitasking, try monotasking

Prasad Menon (who is my mentor) had told me this once "Our brains not wired to multitask well... when people think they're multitasking, they're actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there's a cognitive cost."

This thought got imprinted on my mind.

I have seen many people, multitasking at ease. Handling multiple calls, responding to emails and a dozen of other things all at once.

The productivity of getting things done is definitely good but without the quality and accuracy of it, all the work goes down in the drain.

This constant task-switching encourages bad brain habits. When we complete a tiny task (sending an email, answering a text message, posting a tweet), we are hit with a dollop of dopamine, our reward hormone.

Tanmay Bhat's Honestly podcast had mentioned "Our brains love that dopamine, and so we're encouraged to keep switching between small mini-tasks that give us instant gratification"

The lesson? Multitasking is not a skill to add to the resume, but rather a bad habit to put a stop to. Turn off notifications, create set email checking time slots throughout the day (rather than constant inbox refreshing), and put your mind to the task at hand.