Multitasking myth

Recently, while getting to know more about Stoic philosophy and playing with cognitive-behavioural therapy, I concluded that being present in the current moment is a crucial part of being productive and, in a broader sense, of life satisfaction. Being present means focusing on what we do in a particular moment without drifting away with thoughts to something else. Some people claim to be fully multitasking, but I firmly believe it applies only to simple, no-brainer jobs, not to creative thinking. I accept my brain as a one-core processor that can’t focus on multiple things at the same time.

I’ll start with some examples from my own life. Often, I try to listen to podcasts while working on some simple piece of code. My job frequently involves waiting for the build after applying some changes. In this case, it makes perfect sense to tune in to a stream of words and get back to the code once the build is ready. This seems reasonable, but switching between contexts isn’t free, so I end up wasting time going back and forth. Sometimes I assume that listening to the podcast in the background while actively modifying the code is a good idea, but usually I end up not remembering much from it. The only time I can listen to engaging content while doing something else is when I’m doing chores like simple refactoring, which involves moving files and triggering a build repeatedly. Same in the meetings. After a few years of working in teams of different sizes, I realised that I have to choose what I want to focus on. If I decide to do some work in the background, I have to accept that I won’t be entirely focused on the meeting itself, and if I need to be an active contributor, I probably should not open a code editor during the meeting.

I also want to highlight another thing regarding multitasking, this time on a slightly different level of abstraction. Often, while doing one thing, we are somewhere else with our thoughts. For example, while surfing, I could think about what code to write to resolve an issue that was just raised, and while coding, I can think about a wave that I caught the other day. This leads to a lack of productivity. Being present in a moment and putting everything into what we do is a crucial part of our daily lives. We don’t always do what we truly want, and often we get stuck in activities that are far below our potential. This is because we have to pay the bills, eat, and maintain a tidy house. I firmly believe that nowadays being stuck in a job that is not fulfilling is rather a choice than a must. If you don’t like what you do, change it, or at least find a way to gradually move away from it and go toward something that gives you satisfaction. If you can’t avoid things you dislike for various reasons, I believe the only way to stay productive is to accept them and become proficient in your job, whatever it may be. So, I will repeat it because I find it crucial to be present in whatever you do and do it as well as you can, which is essential to your productivity. Ask yourself Why am I here and Why am I doing that?. Very often, answering those questions will help you focus and make it great, whatever it is.

On another level of abstraction, multitasking in your career could be very tricky and give you a lot of headaches, or even sabotage your path. I try to focus on one thing at a time. It doesn’t mean I have to do only one thing. For a while, I was running a startup and working full-time at the same time. I cannot afford to dive into a startup world and risk a stable income, primarily because of the family that I have to support, so I didn’t have much choice. My solution to that was never to mix those two worlds. I was working eight hours a day in my job, and only on weekends and early mornings did I follow my dreams about entrepreneurship, never mixing those two worlds.

In summary, I will argue that multitasking at any level is a myth. If you want to do a few things at the same time, you have to accept that it will reduce the quality of everything you do. I realised that thinking about some coding challenge while I’m on a surf break won’t help me resolve the issue and will make my surf session worse.