Episode summary introduction:

Today, we delve into the critical distinction between multitasking and monotasking, illuminating the profound implications of each approach on productivity and cognitive function.

The essence of our episode centers on the notion that while multitasking may seem an admirable feat, it often precipitates diminished accuracy and increased mental fatigue due to the cognitive friction it induces.

In contrast, we advocate for monotasking, which allows for a singular focus on tasks, thereby fostering enhanced quality and efficiency. As we embark on this intellectual journey, we invite you to consider the merits of both methodologies and the potential for a hybrid approach, tailored to the demands of specific situations and personal capabilities.

Topics discussed in this episode:

The dialogue intricately explores how contemporary work environments often compel individuals to adopt multitasking as a survival mechanism, thereby normalizing a practice that may be counterproductive. TC & Maddog share their respective experiences and perspectives, revealing a shared skepticism about the efficacy of multitasking in achieving high-quality results. They propose that monotasking, characterized by concentrated efforts on individual tasks, not only fosters accuracy but also mitigates stress and cognitive overload. Throughout the episode, the speakers share practical strategies for cultivating a monotasking mindset, such as setting clear priorities and dedicating specific time blocks to singular tasks. This emphasis on intentional focus is framed as a means of reclaiming mental clarity in an increasingly distracted world. The conversation culminates in a broader inquiry into how individuals can tailor their work practices to their cognitive strengths, thereby fostering a more personalized and effective approach to productivity.

Walkabout takeaways:

• During our discussion, we delineate the distinctions between multitasking and monotasking, highlighting the cognitive implications of each approach.
• It is posited that adopting a monotasking approach can enhance focus and lead to higher quality outputs, which is often compromised in multitasking scenarios.
• We advocate for a hybrid model of task management, wherein situational demands dictate the appropriate balance between multitasking and monotasking approaches.
• The episode concludes by underscoring that multitasking is largely a myth, as true simultaneous task execution is not feasible for the human brain.
• Listeners are encouraged to consider their own cognitive processing styles and the importance of tailoring tasks to individual strengths for optimal productivity.

Reference Link:

1. https://www.monotasking.tips/monotasking-blog/monotasking-vs-multitasking
2. Disc Profiles: What is the DiSC® assessment? - DiSC Profile

More about E-Walkabout:

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“St. Mike's Fortunes”

A special thanks to Steven Kelly, our technical advisor, who keeps trying to teach these old dogs new tricks when it comes to sounds and recording!!

“Remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you!”

Electronic Walkabout. No one should have to walk through life alone. We share the good times, the bad times, and the best times.

Everyone needs a little direction now and again. And TC and Maddog are here to show you the way. A podcast where we talk about the important things in life.

Come journey with us, the Electronic Walkabout. Well, good day, good afternoon, and good evening to the listeners around the world.

Maddog, how are things your way since the last time we took a journey with electronic walkabout?

Things are good. Life is good. Zero complaints. So, yeah, it's things are good. And you?

Oh, I'd say about the same. I mean, my glass is always half full.

I mean, sometimes it sneaks down to the half empty, but that's just a gauge more than anything that I got to fill it up a bit more.

There you go. Hey, I like that mindset.

So today, during this episode, we're going to explore the difference between multitasking, monotasking, and I say maybe even something in between. I'm not sure. I. I just started thinking about this a little while ago because my world actually revolved the ability to multitask.

Little did I know it was wrong. But we're going to talk more about that.

I don't know what your thoughts are about the multitasking, and I always, always had the position that it was survival.

Yeah, sometimes there's so much thrown at us on a daily basis that, you know, if you're just singularly focused on a task, you might not get them all done, so they might be forced to multitask. So.

So we'll explore that a little bit. But as always, let's share our thought for the day. Decide early what your gold standard is and never waver.

You could apply that to literally everything in your life.

Everything.

Yeah, relationships, work, personal satisfaction, the whole thing. Good words to go by.

Let's just begin with a couple simple definitions.

Of course, what multitasking is, what monotasking is, and I don't know, maybe there's a hybrid in between, but let's, let's, let's decide that further on during the episode. But multitasking is the act of attempting perform multiple tasks simultaneously or rapidly switching back and forth between.

While traditionally an IT term for a computer processing multiple programs in daily life, it refers to juggling overlapping cognitive demands.

Makes sense.

Monotask is the practice of dedicating your full unfinishing attention to a single activity until it is completed or a designated time block ends.

It is the deliberate office of multitasking, eliminating distractions to improve focus, work quality, and if you had the choice, which one would you like to jump all.

Over now that you've defined them? I think that monotasking would be interesting to tackle first.

I often wonder, okay, way back when, I don't remember anybody telling me, here's the difference between multitasking and monotasking. But it really made sense when I'm done and retired. She's kind of lost in that moment for sure.

But you think possible to finish one job before you have to start the next early from a problem?

I think so. Again, now that I think about it, I, you know, sometimes think of myself as a big multitasker.

I work off of lists a lot, so I try and fully complete a task before I go on to the next one. So maybe I'm more of a monotasker than multitasker, now that I think about it.

Do you have conversations with your team about multitasking and monotasking by any chance?

I can't say I have. No. No, now that you mentioned it, you know, we talk about efficiencies at work, but I don't know if it's.

Would probably, if I were, now that I think about it, opt to lean the team more towards monotasking, ensuring accuracy and completion as opposed to possibly having 10 balls in the air and maybe finishing one or two.

I, I totally agree with you.

And one of the, One of the interesting things that I don't, and I don't see it in the research I'm doing, but it doesn't mention the word quality at all, which is, I think, especially nearline, where quality's gotta be, I'd say, fair to say, almost the number one thing to consider.

Absolutely. In the food world, quality helps you steal the deal when you don't have any concerns with quality. And it's consistent.

But yeah, to your point, like when we run a production run, it's one product and it's done, you know, in the hundreds of thousands, but it's done right. As opposed to, you know, having 17 different things happening at once and then stuff slipping through the cracks.

Okay, so I already kind of alluded to a bit. This whole idea of multitasking is.

I think it's kind of funny at this point in time where we talk about AI because it seems to be coming full circle way back when, I'll say, also say the early 60s, when computers started to kind of, I'll say, crawl before they could literally walk. And now they're like going 100 miles an hour.

Those don't translate.

But, but when, when that kind of like mindset kind of happened, there was an expectation that came along with it. Fair enough.

Yeah, maybe you can do three things at once as opposed to just working on one thing. But yeah, there's a lot of other repercussions to your point that can happen if you're not solely focused.

I just, I just think in the context of construction and let's say I'm a general contractor and I've got, let's say multiple projects on the go and they're all at different, different stages and of course I have to rely on other trades to get the, the job done. I, I don't know how you can even consider monotasking because there, I don't think it works that way.

Yeah, yeah.

Like I think is if you're a general contractor, yeah, you've got all so many things on the go, but you know, if you're a specific trade then you're more monotasking. But you would probably have multiple sites or multiple aspect job happening.

So yeah, I definitely think it's dependent on industry versus certain other jobs that it's better to do one thing at a time.

Yeah, I think so. So there, there are obvious, I'm going to state some obvious cons to multitasking.

And, and it's funny they mentioned from a cognitive processing perspective because the reality is your brain focuses fully on one task, then rapidly shifts attention to the next. The drawback, the constant switching creates cognitive friction, often leading to decreased accuracy, longer completion times and mental fatigue.

That makes sense to me.

So why in God's green earth?

Who knows? I think it just makes us sound more efficient. Like we're, we're getting a hundred things done.

I, I, I remember it was some months ago, I was having a conversation with Josh and then obviously in school there, one fashion or other, they were talking about the mono task. I'm going, what are you talking about?

You can't do that until you start talking about, it's like, wait a minute, you should only do that.

Yeah, for sure, for sure. The odds are pros to multitasking. Now, now, now, keep that in mind.

So just because it's bad in the context of monotasking doesn't mean there's not some good that come out of it. And that's, that's, that's the thing. That's where I kind of like maybe where's, where's the hybrid model? Where.

And depending on the, the tasks at hand, where you might want to entertain this, this type of tasking, but it saves time and enhances engagement. So think about, you're juggling different threads of information, sometimes remote thinking. You feel energized.

So you're working with different people. And here's something that's kind of contrary to what I just said. It proves cognitive agility.

So yeah, so here's, here's, here's an interesting. I just thought is, what about a doctor in an emergency room? Is he multi? He or she multitasking or are they monotasking repetitively?

So here's, here's the thing.

Let's, let's go with the hybrid because let's say I go into or emergency and the doctor, the doctor is looking at and realized that I might have a broken bone. Well, I got to go to X ray. So in between the time I'm an X, what does that do?

He's going to talk to somebody else.

Yeah, but he's still got, in the back of my mind, I still got this patient may not have a broken leg and I may not follow up with that.

They follow under multitasking for sure.

Then the other thing is boost perceived product. And I love the word perceive, so it doesn't mean it's real if it's perceived.

Right? Yeah.

Is that fair to say? Yeah. Approaching the same amount of work in multitasking session rather than a series of single tasks has been shown in studies. Boost perceived.

I don't know about that.

He's not trusting the data.

No, I don't think so. Monotask and after.

I mean, we kind of already shared, but my question to you was at this stage of the game was like, what are your thoughts on monotasking? It sounds like I've always already sold you on it.

Well, it has a good appeal. But then the reality is, is that there are time constraints with multiple things during the day.

So I think, you know, probably to have the ability to do both. To your point, maybe the hybrid model would be very beneficial.

So when you have the time and you can singularly focus, then great, you're following it through.

But then if four of the things pop up with what you were saying about kind of brain agility, if you will to be able to jump over and kind of address those and Yeah, I just, I think that there's, it's probably a hybrid based on situation.

What about you? Because you just mentioned situation. It just popped in my head. What about individuals?

Because some individuals can cognitively process better than others.

And again, if you're, you have someone on your team that really has a challenge with that cognitive processing, do you really want to set them up for failure by giving them like five or six jobs all at once that had to be done in a specific timeline?

No, no, not at all. You kind of have to tailor the jobs to the people.

We're doing stuff right now internally with disc profiles, whether you have a dominant, influential, supportive or conscientious work style. And then there's certain things that if you have those styles, you respond to better or not.

And you know, the people, the conscientious are very detailed, oriented, they're very precise.

So, you know, those would be more of the, the monotaskers where if you have a somebody that's like a high D or dominant, if they'll throw up five tasks in the air and try and tackle them all at once. So you kind of need to know who, you know that challenge is being put to and, and recognize their, you know, kind of work style.

So I'm just wondering, and I know probably a lot of listeners don't understand what DISK is, but how long have you, how long has your company been using this program?

Well, I did that back in my Nestle days at least a decade ago. And it really helped kind of shape my management style by letting my guard down and accepting the feedback that it gave me.

Because it's.

Sometimes you feel like it's critical, but you can take a lot of, a lot out of those profiles and apply them to yourselves because it shows you based on where you're at right now. Here are the things that people perceive you as and here's some things that are to watch out for.

And you know, if you focus on those things, you can kind of redefine or reshape your style.

Well, I, I truly, I'll say there's value in disc profiles for sure. And we're not going to get into too much.

But I will tell the listeners that I will provide a link in the show notes if they want to learn more about this profiles that avenue, they can do that.

We just did it for our entire senior leadership team and reviewed the results. VP of ivp and it was quite funny because everybody just kind of laughs and goes, yep, that's that person.

And you know, when my profile first Got done. I printed off the report and I gave it to my wife. And she just read through and she's like, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

She goes, yep, this is you to a T. So, yeah, it's. It's worthwhile if you can access it.

For sure. Yeah. I think the. The bigger challenge with the disk profile. Of course, having the profile is just the start of it.

Actually using it effectively with different individuals would truly be the challenge.

Absolutely.

So benefits of auto tasking. Very, very, very simple.

Less stress and accuracy has got to be the. The biggest thing that comes out of that.

I just said that, you know, I thought popped in my taste. Less spelling. I don't know why, but it did.

It's good.

We've already kind of talked about this, but I'm gonna kind of. So in your line of work, just to be clear, there's never been any guidance between monotasking or multitask?

No, no. I can't say in any job that I've had that that's been a topic of discussion. I think it's probably just assumed.

Wow. Yeah, probably. And think about it. It's behavior so you can practice monotask and get better at monotask. So how do we practice monotasking?

By no different than muscle memory. Adopting a few simple habits. Great time blocks. Dedicate specific hours of your day strictly to one project without checking emails or messages.

That's hard.

That is hard. Especially when we're all hardwired to our devices, for sure. Prioritize daily goals.

Limit your major daily tasks to one to three priorities to avoid the temptation of splitting your focus. Single task, daily life.

Apply the concepts to routine activities, like listening to a podcast without doing chores or eating a meal away from your screen.

It's kind of like being in the moment.

Being in the moment. I'm not so sure about not listening to a podcast, though.

Hey, if you really want to take it in, you'll sit there and listen to it in its entirety.

I think so too. And it's. It's safe to say that there are situations where a hybrid model can come to life and. And work just as well.

But I think the go to is going to monotasking and then depending on neat, as you said, go to the multitasking. And I've already mentioned the whole word about quality, because what if. What if the monotask was to ensure that there was quality in the output?

Yeah. But hey, if you can finish tasks multitasking with high quality, then you've got some very big call outs. For your abilities.

You know, the funny thing about it, I used to take pride in the fact that I could do like four or five different things, get them done in a timely fashion and with quality. I will say. But obviously I was shooting myself in the foot while trying to go down that road.

Yeah, you know, it's. It's not good to overload yourself.

And it's very interesting though, because now that I think about it over the years, when you start realizing when people apply for jobs, that's probably one of the first things they put on their skills and abilities is I'm a great multitasker. Right. For some reason that's a. That seems to resonate with a higher performer or I get more done. But speaking to the quality aspects that.

Interesting.

Just a different perspective looking at things. And I just thought, okay, well, is there some value to monotasking? Well, certainly there is.

And probably, like we've already discussed, more than multitasking, unfortunately, talking about multitasking. Here we are talking, but we're listening.

To music at the same time.

So that's telling us that this episode has come to an end. But when the thought of multitasking comes into here, remember this multitasking is largely a myth.

Your brain doesn't do tasks simultaneously, but rapidly switches between them. The rapid task switching creates attention residue, which drains your mental energy, increases stress, and results in more errors.

Interesting. Yeah, these are. It's going to. Actually, you know what?

Even from an interview process, would be interesting to ask somebody, what are the benefits of multitasking to monotasking? Just to see what might throw some people off.

Like, I could do a lot of things at once, but you know, if somebody answered that they would be more effective by monotasking. It's an important, interesting talking point.

Well, that's probably why we hear the Jack of all trades, master of none, because that's perfect to be the match that you want to focus on. One job at a time, do it well, and then move on to the next. So you can still be the master number of trades, but focus on the one. Move on.

I'm just going to end this episode with a quote. The shorter way to do many things is to only do one thing at a time.

Case closed.

Back to the basics.

So remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you. To learn more about e Walkabout. Please visit us at ewalkabout.ca.