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You are at work having an email conversation with a client while at the same time brainstorming what you would say at the next departmental meeting. You are also having an IM Conversation on your mobile phone at the same time. Your co-workers are doing the same time. The room is a buzz of activity as several people are each killing multiple birds with single stones. That is a productive work place, right?

Multitasking seem to be necessary in our lives in the 21^st century but is it really for the best? Most proponents of multitasking believe it helps them to be productive. After all, you are doing many things at the same time. Right? Wrong. When you multitask, you get the emotional satisfaction that you are being productive. However, in reality, you are not being very productive. Focusing on one task beats multitasking by a mile. It is more efficient to tick tasks one after the other off a to-do list than to attempt to do everything at once.

When you multitask, you feel like they are getting a lot done because they are jumping from one task to the other. The truth is that by engaging in multiple tasks, you are confusing your brain. Your effort on each task is less than it should be since the brain is not able to fully concentrate on a particular task.

While you are darting from one task to another, it becomes difficult to regain focus when you come back to a particular task. The end point of it is that you are under utilizing your time and your work becomes inefficient.

There is evidence that multitasking actually lowers intelligence. By doing multiple tasks, your cognitive ability reduces and this makes you totally unable to do tasks that you are normally able to. You don’t have to take our world for it as evidence abounds on the fact that multi tasking can make you slow and stupid. Multitasking can affect your efficiency the same way that alcohol does. Yes, the distraction that comes with attempting to do a lot at once is similar to getting drunk.

If you are one of those who are tempted to do several tasks at once, then you should consider concentrating and focusing on one task at a time. Compare your results when you do single tasks and when you multi task and see the difference. The difference would convince you.