How to deal with multitasking. Everyday hell: life and work in multitasking mode

The world overloads us with information and tasks so much that we simply forgot how to concentrate. We check social media a hundred times a day. And we also have such tasks that other people used to solve. For example, now it is possible to independently book a plane ticket and a hotel room, without a cashier to buy goods in a store. There are many more tasks, and besides that, I want to be with my family, friends and take up a hobby.

Multitasking is a myth

However, a long list of tasks and the ability to do multiple things is not as good as it seems. A person cannot be multitasking. For multitasking, we think of the ability to quickly switch from one task to another. And each such switch requires considerable resources, increases stress and increases feelings of anxiety. Therefore, the less we switch and get distracted by extraneous things, the better.

But what if there are a lot of tasks and you need to somehow cope with it? How not to go crazy with a huge to-do list and be effective? Here are some tips.

Work in cycles

Business requires constant switching between tasks. If you have not yet learned how to delegate and do everything on your own - from calls to the water supplier to the interview, then by the evening you are probably squeezed out like a lemon. To avoid unnecessary stress, work in cycles, taking a break in between.

The simplest cycling technique is the Pomodoro technique. You concentrate as much as possible at work for some time and then make sure to take a short break. For example, 45 minutes of work and 15 minutes of rest. This principle of work is effective for working with a large number of tasks, and with one big task.

Change your concentration mode

Our brain operates in two modes of attention: concentration mode and wandering mode. Concentration mode (central-executive mode) turns on when we are completely immersed in work. We pay maximum attention to our work. In this mode, we work productively, but intensely. With prolonged work at such speeds, we gradually get tired and our efficiency decreases.

To work productively for a long time, you need to periodically switch from the first to the second mode - the "wandering" mode (mind-wandering mode). We are in this mode when we read literature, articles, walk, admire art, meditate. The wandering mode allows you to reboot your brain and relax. Therefore, taking breaks is beneficial to improve work efficiency.

Make big decisions in the morning

It is better to make all important decisions in the morning, when your decision-making resource has not yet been depleted. Oddly enough, but we can really make a limited number of decisions per day. There is a certain threshold, and it doesn't matter whether we face a difficult choice or an easy one.

In one experiment, a group of people were asked to participate in a survey. Before the survey, they were specifically asked simple questions such as: how do you arrange the paper? Blue or black pen for you? What will you drink: tea or coffee? Sugar or Sugar Free? With milk or lemon?

That is, they were forced to make decisions. And then they handed out poll sheets, where there were questions on important philosophical problems. People coped with the difficulty because they already felt tired. Decision-making resource has been spent.

Therefore all important questions it is better to decide in the morning, while your head is fresh and you have not had time to spend the entire resource.

Free your head

Don't keep everything in your head, use brain expanders - calendars, diaries, lists, notebooks, applications.

Imagine that your concentration is the RAM on your computer. The more programs are open on the computer at the same time, the slower it will work. If you are trying to keep something in your head instead of uploading it to another medium, then you are taking up the amount of memory you need. The more such information, the more difficult it is to concentrate on the current business.

Live in the moment

How often do you think about household chores and dinner while sitting at work, and think about work at home? This happens all the time. During breakfast, people are holding a fork in one hand and a phone in the other. They walk down the street with gloomy, concentrated faces, tensely thinking about something. We stopped enjoying the present moment.

Vietnamese monk Tit Nat Khan teaches to live here and now in his book "Peace at every step". If you want to learn how to live in the moment, then be sure to read this book.

Some employees indicate in the resume as one of the important business qualities "the ability to work in multitasking mode", and some employers call it the same, composing a portrait of the ideal candidate. However, in reality, trying to multitask can cripple your health and ruin your career.

A dangerous delusion

Management guru Peter Drucker wrote in one of his articles: "I have never met a leader who, performing more than two tasks at the same time, could remain effective." However, the myth that you can multitask and stay efficient is somehow still alive. And even despite the assurances of scientists who claim that multitasking is unnatural, and under no circumstances the human brain is able to simultaneously work on two tasks at the same time, there are still those who are ready to argue with them, proving the opposite. “You feel like you’re doing several things at once, but in reality you’re putting tasks in a specific order and deciding which one to do at any given time,” says Jordan Grafman, head of cognitive neuroscience at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS ).

David Meyer, director of the University of Michigan Laboratory for the Study of the Brain, Cognition and Human Performance, argues that multitasking leads to slower work progress (twice or more) and increases the chances of error. According to him, switches and interruptions interfere with our ability to process information, significantly reduce productivity. “People may think differently, but this is a myth,” he says. "There is no way to overcome the innate limitations of the brain."

Those who believe that human possibilities are endless and systematically rape their brains with multitasking, as a result, pay with their own health. The habit of jumping from task to task, not only at work, but also outside it, as a result, leads the brain into a state of overexcitation. A person loses the ability to concentrate, he starts having sleep problems, headaches and other ailments. In fact, he gradually loses his ability to work. What a career here ...

Multitasking and multitasking

David Meyer identifies three types of people at risk of falling prey to multitasking. The first are those who are forced by life to work in an unnatural rhythm. Such people try to do several things at the same time (for example, talking on the phone and looking through papers), considering this the only way to be competitive. The second are those who multitask without realizing it. Such people, for example, might quit writing a report halfway through to check their mail one more time. They jump from one task to another, not thinking about the fact that this reduces efficiency.

The third type of people are those who pride themselves on their "multitasking ability." “A lot of people deceptively think they're good at this,” Meyer says. “But the problem is that everyone’s brain is the same, and it doesn’t work that way. In reality, no one can efficiently perform more than one complex task at a given time. "

Despite the strong evidence that multitasking is harmful to scientists, people find it increasingly difficult to avoid it. Paradoxically modern technologies instead of simplifying our lives, they made it even more complicated. The Institute for the Future (IFTF) conducted a study that examined the experiences of employees in Fortune 1000 companies. It found that each of them receives an average of 178 messages a day and is interrupted at least three times in an hour. It is clear that productivity does not increase from this. Jonothan Speer, chief analyst at research firm Basex, estimates that employee interruptions cost the American economy $ 650 billion annually.

Survival technology

If you consider yourself a reasonable person, it is within your power to organize your workflow in such a way as to protect yourself from the destructive multitasking. Here are some simple tips to make your life easier.

Try to constantly "keep" in your head only the most necessary things, and use "external storage media" for the rest. This is not at all about the next technological innovations. Follow the example of Albert Einstein, who once said that he does not keep in mind what can be written down on paper. Carry a notebook with you or set reminders in your Outlook calendar - choose whichever is more convenient for you.

Write task lists and arrange the order of execution. Try to estimate how long each will take and compare with the actual time spent. Group tasks, try not to be distracted as you complete them, and take steps to avoid being distracted by others. Check your mail not every five minutes, but at specific time intervals. For example, once an hour. If possible, turn on the answering machine on your phone. Try to negotiate "office hours" with colleagues. Most of the questions that are asked of you during the day are not so important or urgent. And you have only one health, take care of it.

In preparing the article, materials were used

Multitasking Is a constant companion of all HR specialists... Even if the functionality of the HR manager involves only recruiting, multitasking, in any case, will be present. If a person is not able to work in the regime multitasking, he will try to act in turn, prioritizing and trying to have time to complete all the necessary functionality within a certain time. But the point is that at work HR specialist there is a constant human factor and most likely it will not be possible to work according to a pre-planned scenario. In order to fit the planned within the working day, it is important to be able to work in the multitasking... Let's take a look at some basic rules to help you deal with this problem successfully.

We plan our working day

I will give an example of prioritization for HR specialist who works at the production site in a single person.

Filling the vacancies "warehouse manager" and "shift supervisor".
Mass recruitment (workers for production).
HR administration (hiring, dismissal, transfer of employees).
Development of local regulations, regulations and job descriptions.
Reporting for management.
Development of an assessment program for line personnel.
Development of training materials for line personnel.
Development of a motivation system for production employees.
Notification of the FMS about the admission of foreign workers.
Carrying out adaptation activities for beginners.

In order to correctly prioritize, it is necessary to set goals to achieve which the employee's tasks are directed. The more the goals influence the result of the business, the more priority this or that task becomes. In addition to setting goals, it is important to assess the risks that the organization faces in case of failure to fulfill a particular task. It is these two factors that are decisive in prioritization.

Prioritizing tasks based on goals and risks

Task	Target	Risks	Priority	Task status
Filling the vacancies "Warehouse Manager" and "Shift Manager"	Uninterrupted operation of the business system	Functional failure business development, financial losses	High	Urgent
Mass recruitment (workers for production)	Efficient manufacturing process	Functional failure business development, financial losses	High	Urgent
HR administration (hiring, dismissal, transfer of employees)	Personnel accounting, compliance with labor laws	Unsystematic personnel records, fines in case of inspections for non-compliance with labor laws	Average	Current
Development of local regulations, regulations and job descriptions	Regulation of processes, compliance with labor laws	Unregulated processes, fines in case of inspections for non-compliance with labor laws	Average	Current
Reporting for management	Providing measurable performance indicators	No significant risks	Low	Current
Development of an assessment program for line personnel	Identification of incompetent employees, the formation of an internal personnel reserve	Poor quality of work by incompetent staff	High	Urgent
Development of training materials for line personnel	Improving competence and, as a result, the quality of employees' work	Poor quality of work of untrained staff	High	Current
Development of a motivation system for production employees	Increased motivation and, as a result, the quality of employees' work	Poor quality of work of unmotivated staff	High	Urgent
Notification of the FMS on the admission of foreign workers	Compliance with the law	Fines for non-compliance with migration legislation	High	Urgent
Carrying out adaptation activities for beginners	Improvement of internal corporate communications and the quality of work of employees	Increase in turnover and deterioration in the quality of work of a new employee is possible. No significant risks	Average	Current

As we can see, there are no urgent tasks in the table, urgent and current tasks are equally distributed. When planning your day, it is important to devote the maximum amount of time to solving urgent tasks, while leaving a small amount of time to solve current tasks.

Any task must be divided into processes. Even if the task is global and requires a significant amount of time, it will be much easier to implement it.

Learning to switch

The ability to switch is necessary to maintain concentration of attention, that is, focus on the task and interest in the work being performed. It is monotonous actions that reduce the stability of attention. In the process of switching from one task to another, the following points should be considered:

The contrast of the dynamics of processes.
Time factor.

The process you are switching to should be different in dynamics from the main process: this is a key rule of constructive work. For example how HR director you are busy developing the regulations for which you have given yourself certain time let's say two hours. In the middle of the process, you can switch to another, more lively task, such as conducting telephone interviews with candidates. It is also advisable to switch to activities that are easier and more interesting for you: this is psychologically easier, and switching, in addition to a constructive effect on your attention, will be perceived as relaxation and unloading for the brain.

Regarding the time factor, it should be noted that switching should be limited in time, that is, the main activity, from which you switched to secondary, should remain so. Let's say your main task today is to monitor the labor market in terms of wages. you have determined for yourself the time to complete this functionality: three hours. Every hour, switch to another, secondary task, allocating 15-20 minutes to complete it. Thus, it will take you four hours to complete the main and several secondary tasks, instead of the three that you laid down for the main task. But your productivity will increase significantly and, in addition to a large block of analytical work, you will be able to perform a number of functional duties without losing the quality of work.

We carry out different actions at the same time

Of course, in fact, doing several things at the same time is unrealistic: in any case, you are doing one thing, instantly switching to another. But to perform tasks that are insignificant in terms of labor costs, it is still possible to simultaneously perform several actions. For example, while talking on the phone, you can parse and sign documents, or, while communicating with a colleague, you can view e-mail.

The main thing is that the processes that you perform in parallel are more mechanical than tactical, and do not require significant mental effort from you. By developing the ability to do several things in parallel every day, you can significantly increase your productivity and optimize the time spent during the working day.

Neutralizing the time eaters

Time eaters, or chronophages, are a powerful negative factor that works to distract a specialist and take away his time resources. Let's take a look at the typical time eaters and possible ways to deal with them.

Social networks, entertainment content. The Internet in a workflow should only be used for work. This is a rule that does not require discussion. More globally, social networks are, first of all, the exchange of information. An excess of information leads to stress and nervous overload. At work, you already get a lot of information. And if you add to it the stream of endless network garbage that we consume, you can simply forget about productivity. Make it a rule not to go to social media at work. Do it on the way home, in the evening, if without social networks not enough.
Personal calls. Talking to friends and family over the phone during the working day is best kept to a minimum. First, you are wasting valuable work time on them. Second, personal conversations are a powerful distraction that makes it difficult for you to tune in to work: you continue to think about your personal affairs and problems that need to be solved. Thirdly, I'll tell you a secret, such conversations are very annoying to the management. Know how to work while at work: personal calls and sms are best left for lunchtime, when you can calmly discuss everything related to your personal life.
Chronophagous people. There are people who do not work themselves and do not give to others. They will come, look into the eyes and begin to spread their thoughts along the tree, discussing trivial things for hours. Don't encourage them to be talkative. Know how to say no, to end the conversation tactfully. Otherwise, such communication may become regular. If you see that a colleague is abusing your hospitality, end this dialogue, or rather, a monologue, in any way possible. Start writing an email. Say the phrase that ends the conversation: "I heard you", "I understood you", "Thank you, everything is clear." Refer to urgent matters.

We give ourselves a timely rest

Unfortunately, regular rest breaks are rare today. We eat, drink, listen to music without looking up from the computer monitor. Rest on the job is not rest, but satisfaction of physiological needs. Somehow in one scientific journal I read that if a person suffers from insomnia, there is no need to worry: the main thing is to lie in bed, the body will perceive it as a dream. So in work: if we are sitting in front of a computer, even a delicious lunch will not be perceived as relaxation: our poor body will think that work is going on.

Working nonstop is a powerful stressor. You need to go outside at least every two hours, drink tea, turn off the monitor screen. Even ten minutes of rest can have a beneficial effect on the employee, especially if he is working in a time pressure mode.

We disconnect from business after the end of the working day

Just like you turn off your computer at the end of your day, it's important to be able to disconnect your own brain from your workflow. Without disconnection, you do not rest, constantly scrolling in your head the work questions that need to be resolved.

How to forget about work issues until the next one working day? First, don't train your peers and supervisors to bother you on weekends and evenings. Second, leave unresolved issues at work. Write down all your tasks and leave them on your desktop. Thus, you do not have to keep in mind all that is to be done. One last thing: don't take work home. If there is an urgent need to complete some tasks, it is better to come to the office on a weekend than to let work into your personal space. Know how to separate work from personal life, harmony is an important component of any personality, even if this person is an incorrigible workaholic and an ambitious careerist.

Even in childhood, we are told that in order to do everything in time, we need to start assignments on time. But the problem is that we simply forget about them or push them aside because of the more important things in our opinion.

The working day of a responsible employee most often consists of:

Events hard-coded in the calendar

Such events have exact time start and end, for example, meetings, negotiations, presentations, training, interviews, etc.

Routine

These are daily tasks that can be performed concurrently and in parallel with each other. Their number is not constant, and the exact time of the beginning and end of work on them is unknown. This can be: making decisions on daily tasks, advising subordinates on urgent issues, preparing daily reports, parsing mail, etc.

In the process of work, a responsible employee, faced with the need to organize his working time and the time of his subordinates, most often resort to the help of calendars and systems related to setting tasks. But in practice, these tools are not always able to give the desired result.

So, calendars help to take into account the time of only those events in which the employee's employment is 100%. However, such a tool does not work when performing daily routine tasks, when the work does not require full employment of the employee, or when time is allocated in small parts to perform several tasks at once.

Classic automation systems called "task trackers" allow you to track the target dates for the completion of tasks. But the employee still needs to keep in mind when he should start performing a particular task. If an employee works in hard multitasking mode, then the task may not start, even if the estimated start date has passed. The so-called student syndrome arises and the risk of failure to complete tasks on time increases.

Usually, with this mode of operation, there are two main problems in which the above tools cannot help:

the difficulty of determining the importance of the task at the time of its receipt, and its priority in relation to other tasks;
an error in determining the percentage of an employee's real workload at the time of making a decision to take a task to work.

In search of an optimal solution, the company "First Form" has developed a new mechanism for its automated system that allows you to avoid student syndrome, bypass the inability to work with unstructured time, and objectively assess the real employment of employees.

Its work is based on a combination of two methods: volume-calendar and daily planning.

1. Volumetric calendar method

V this method one value indicates the number of working hours (days, minutes) that should be spent on performing the work in the interval of its duration, i.e., the specified labor hours can be spent at any time, during the period from the beginning of the work to its completion.

2. Daily plan

The method allows you to specify a specific day (date) during which work hours will be spent. At the same time, several values for different dates can be assigned to one task. The method allows you to enter both planned and actual labor costs.

Both methods can be used at the same time.

Evaluation of labor costs by the volume-calendar method can be performed in two ways:

the user can get an assessment from the outside; for example, a supervisor sets aside the total number of hours to complete a task;
the user himself enters his planned labor costs in any time units; at the same time, there is the possibility of accepting the entered time from your manager or specialized specialist.

After that, the "First Form" automatically distributes the size of the volume-calendar plan for individual days in the time interval between the date of the start and the date of the planned completion of the task. Thus, the values of the daily plan are obtained: the number of planned working hours for each day.

The built-in algorithm distributes hours according to the "early-start" rule, when the maximum working hours falls on the beginning of the working period. This allows you to immediately get rid of the student syndrome and reduce the risk of overdue tasks.

Of course, automation may not know some details and features of the work performed. Therefore, the developers, instead of improving and complicating the system, provide the user with the opportunity to adjust the plan proposed by the system himself and add the distribution of hours by day manually:

Thus, there is a transition from entering the total number of hours for the task to the daily distribution.

Based on the received data, the system builds time sheet employee. In this view, you can see what tasks and in what quantity the performer should be engaged during each of the days, so that the entire amount of necessary work is completed on time for each of the tasks.

In this interface, the user, observing all his expected workload for each day, can reschedule his own work, i.e. transfer planned work hours from one date to another. This allows the employee to provide himself with the most comfortable, even workload, without any prejudice to the deadlines for completing tasks.

If the daily distribution was performed by any method (automatically or manually, from the form of a separate task or through the Timesheet), then in the "First Form" agenda- Agenda.

The agenda tells the employee for what tasks and how much he should allocate his working time. It includes both static tasks from the working calendar and tasks for which time has been allocated using the daily scheduling method.

AND Agenda, and Time sheet do not give a clear distribution of the start and end time of tasks during the working day. But on the other hand, they allow the employee to see the work plan for the day for each of the tasks, and effectively plan their day and week. An employee who uses Agenda every day is relieved of the risk of not completing a task on time - he just needs to spend his time on the work recommended by the system.

Another one important feature"First Form" - the use of daily labor costs in the preparation of reports on the planned workload of performers. The fundamental difference is that these reports take into account individual characteristics performance of each of the tasks, and how exactly the employee allocated his working time throughout its entire duration.

The manager analyzing the work plan of the department can be sure: if there are free hours in the employee's time sheet, then they can be used to complete the newly entered task, while all other work will not be affected and will be completed on time.

Additional information on the website of the company "Pervaya Forma"

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The society makes more and more new demands. Nobody is interested in a hard worker who does one thing at a time. No, he must be able to do both, and at once.

And more and more often we come across the concept of multitasking. What is multitasking? Multitasking is the ability to run multiple processes at the same time. This concept applies to programming, and production, and human activity. In order not to be sprayed, let's leave technical issues experts and talk about what multitasking is for humans.

Multitasking is more and more penetrating into our lives and becomes an integral companion of our deeds, recreation, everyday life, and entertainment. Perhaps this happens because we are spinning in a stormy stream of information and opportunities, and we want to try everything, and we want to do everything. We turned into big kids, and kids, as you know, like to start different things and quit halfway.

Therefore, we can simultaneously answer letters in the mail, chat on social networks, listen to music, paint our nails (cut a beard) and argue with our mother (wife, husband) through the wall. Now Julius Caesar has nothing to be proud of, even modern children have surpassed him - we do everything at once. We are constantly busy with something, but we just can't come to the finish line, we have dozens of started and unfinished business. Engaging in three projects at once, reading five books at the same time, cooking soup, washing dishes and vacuuming - this is our multitasking.

It is not something to strive for as a useful system of work. On the contrary - now this property is inherent in almost every person. And we must learn to curb it.

Let me tell you a secret: Researchers argue that multitasking for a person does not at all mean performing several tasks at the same time, but rather quickly switching from one to another and back. There are very few truly multitasking people.

Why do we love multitasking so much? Yes, we really love her because the brain loves the feeling of being constantly busy, so we feel more fulfilled and happier. The fact that half of the energy is spent switching from one task to another is not taken into account.

Moreover, when switching between tasks, a large dose of the hormone of happiness is released into our body. That is why we are so attracted by the flashing SMS alert or the desire to feel nostalgic over the old junk found during the cleaning.

But the problem is that at the same time, the brain "injects" cortisol, the stress hormone. And it turns out that when we multitask, we are both happy and tense at the same time.

But does this mean that multitasking negatively affects our life and work? To find out, let's look at all aspects of this phenomenon.

Pros and cons of multitasking

When multitasking, a person is prone to superficial processing of information, therefore, he does not have a sufficient knowledge base and is poorly informed about the issues being studied.
A "multi-tool" subconsciously transfers data from one task to another, and therefore makes mistakes. With insufficient concentration, attention is scattered.
The wrong multitasking is tiring - and a tired person works worse.
As already mentioned, multitasking is fraught with a bunch of started and unfinished business.

With the right work planning, multitasking really helps to solve multiple tasks at the same time.
It trains the brain and develops concentration.
People who are able to work effectively in multitasking conditions are able to react quickly in force majeure circumstances and to delve into the key concepts of the problem with lightning speed. In some situations, this property is much more important than the ability to meticulously study the issue, disassemble it "by the bones" and only then make a decision. Sometimes it may be too late.

Multitasking at Work: Can't Execute Pardon?

What should we do with the notorious multitasking - try to get rid of it and learn how to do everything in order, or somehow systematize it so that it does more good than harm? Of course, the second.

By the way, working in a multitasking environment brings good results in business, management, pedagogy, tourism and other niches where you need to solve a bunch of issues as soon as they come up. The main thing here is to learn how to use it correctly, so that it does not work like in that joke about the Chukchi who harnessed deer to the Zhiguli. For multitasking to be a tool and not a ballast, you need to set some important rules for yourself.

How to work effectively in a multitasking environment?

Multitasking is a complex and capricious property of our psyche. It is like an unbroken horse. If we do not know how to manage it, it saddles us and exhausts us, squeezes out all the juices.

Multitasking should not be confused with disorganization. Many who consider themselves to be cool "multitaskers" simply do not know how to organize their own time.

True multitasking is the ability to concentrate on only one thing for a certain time, switching to another at a fixed moment and completely immersing yourself in a new job.

Develop discipline and concentration - and then multitasking does not turn into a quagmire, irretrievably sucking in all the time and energy of its owner.

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