The True Cost of Multitasking Isn't Productivity—It's Mental Health

                                                        

When I set out to write a piece about multitasking, my goal was to review and present some scientific studies showing exactly how multitasking impacts productivity. Because it definitely impacts productivity, right? I hear that all of the time.

As it turns out, I couldn't find much to support that claim. In fact, I found one study that showed multitasking actually makes people more productive.

What I did find, though, was that even if multitasking were to impact your productivity, it would be the least detrimental of its side effects. The true costs of multitasking are to your mental health, happiness, focus, and ability to learn new things. So the real reason you shouldn't multitask isn't that you want to get more done. It's because you're looking after your well-being.

How Multitasking Affects Your Mental Health

The findings from the Mark, Gudith, and Klocke study weren't all good news: "Interrupted work may be done faster, but at a price," they write. "After only 20 minutes of interrupted work, people reported significantly higher stress, frustration, workload, effort, and pressure." So it's quite possible that you can multitask all day long with little to no impact on your productivity or the quality of the work you produce. But behind the scenes, all of that multitasking is likely taking its toll on your overall mental health and wellbeing.

Additionally, Gloria Mark conducted a subsequent study that found that even if multitasking your way through interruptions makes you more productive, you're likely to feel as though you weren't productive.

And feeling less productive, Mark found, also takes a toll on your mental health. The second study found that people who felt they'd been productive over the course of the day reported having more positive moods at the end of the day. But the more often people were interrupted by emails, switched tasks on their computer screens, or participated in face-to-face discussions, the more likely they were to report feeling that they hadn't been productive.

The researchers concluded that "though our measure of productivity involved subjective reports, this productivity measure can actually capture many other underlying attributes. We found, for example, that productivity is highly correlated with positive affect. Thus, subjective productivity could be a barometer for happiness in the workplace."

In other words, if you feel you're not being productive, you're probably also less likely to feel happy at work.

How Multitasking Affects Your Ability to Learn New Things

A study from researchers at the University of Oregon found that chronic multitaskers are also less able to fully focus their attention on tasks.

The researchers compared two groups of people—those who regularly multitask and those who don't—and conducted three experiments to see if people who preferred multitasking were better at focusing, had better memories, or were able to switch contexts quicker.

The heavy multitaskers performed worse on every single experiment.

The results suggested that people who prefer monotasking were better able to fully focus on new tasks when taking them up, whereas heavy multitaskers tended to keep tidbits of information in mind for all of the tasks they were working on.

So why is that bad? In an article for Time, the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Cynthia Kubu explains that by multitasking, "we slowly lose our ability to focus enough to learn. Attention is essential to learning." So regardless of your productivity while multitasking, it's likely that you're not growing in your skills.