Multitasking Raises Stress Levels

For many years I’ve taken pride in the fact that I am a gifted multitasker. I can do many different tasks at the same time, each one performed with an amazing level of proficiency.

For example, during busy periods at work, I’ll type an email reply to a client on my computer with one hand, while at the same time my other hand is flipping through a catalog to look up some technical information for a different client. While doing those things, I also glance over at my cell phone to read a new text message that just came in from yet another client, and all-the-while the receiver of my desk phone is wedged between my shoulder and my tilted head as a fourth client is reciting important figures that he thinks I am writing down. I’m actually not writing anything down because this is what my ear hears through the phone: “Blah blah, blah blah blah, six-four-three. You got that, Bill?”

Oh, and while all this is going on, just to add to the excitement, a little radio is blaring the weather forecast and my iPad is showing video highlights of last night’s baseball game.

But I am multitasking, and that’s a valuable skill in our fast-paced world, right? Even though once in a while my email reply mentions that it will be partly-cloudy this afternoon when the client only wanted to know the size of the motor on a particular exhaust fan; and sometimes the catalog information I look up is about the metal thickness used for a certain type of ductwork when that client wanted to know the color options for a wall louver; and occasionally I’ll say into the phone, “I got it, Petey. You just turned a six-four-three double play,” and he’ll say, “Um, my name is Bob, and what I said was the shipment weighs six-hundred and forty-three pounds.”

So as I mentioned earlier, I can do many different tasks at the same time, each one performed with an amazing level of, um, mediocrity.

Maybe multitasking isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. (But the phrase “crack up” might be appropriate.) A neuroscientist at M.I.T., Dr. Earl Miller, says our brains are “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.”

I’m not sure what “cognitive cost” means, but when I screw up something at work because I tried to do five things at once, there is definitely a monetary cost.

A recent article in Inc. Magazine discussed medical studies which show that multitasking actually lowers work quality and productivity. To make matters worse, multitasking increases the production of cortisol, the human body’s stress hormone. So we get the best of both worlds: we do a lousy job and we get stressed out in the process. When our brains constantly shift gears, it raises stress levels and wears us out more quickly, which may explain why I often feel exhausted by 10:30 a.m. — or maybe that’s just my Dunkin Donuts-induced caffeine and sugar high wearing off.

According to the studies, the biggest cause of multitasking is the email inbox. As soon as we notice a new email has arrived, many people, myself included, stop whatever we’re doing and read the new email. Oftentimes, within ten minutes, we can find ourselves juggling six tasks at once. 

So, in order to be more productive at work, and to keep my stress level down, instead of checking my email constantly, I’m only going to check it periodically. I think once a month should be fine. Yeah, I’m sure my clients will understand.