How multitasking can backfire on you

For years I have prided myself on my “quality assurance” system when it comes to writing texts and emails.

I have always written the body of the text or email first. It’s only at the very end that I insert the recipient’s details. In the case of replying to an email, before I do anything, I delete the original sender’s email address. Call me paranoid, but I do this just in case I hit send by mistake in the middle of drafting my message. It gives me a feeling of security that I am not going to prematurely send an email, and make a fool of myself.

The above procedure works perfectly every time to save me from potential embarrassment. As long as I insert the correct email address at the very end!!!

Last year, whilst composing an email to our accountant, I learnt a very valuable lesson.

Just as I was inserting the email address to send the email off on its merry way, my husband asked me a question about a friend of ours, John.

Rather than replying to my husband, “hold on a second, I am in the middle of something”, I stupidly continued writing my email while answering my husband’s question.

And you know what I did in the process? I populated the to-address of my email with JOHN’S email address, rather than the accountant’s email address, and then, proceeded to hit the send button!

The moment I sent that email, I realised what I had just done. Although there was no sensitive or confidential information in that email, I felt sick to my stomach.

I quickly fired up an email to John, telling him to ignore the email that I had just sent to him, explaining that it had been destined for my accountant.

Although John replied back telling me not to give the matter a second thought, I was still embarrassed by the whole episode.

Attempting to multitask does NOT work!

Multitasking is a myth anyway when it comes juggling two or more cognitive activities. Instead what we are doing is task switching – switching from one task to the next. And doing neither of them well!

It is impossible to simultaneously carry out two cognitive tasks, as the brain can only process one thought at a time. You only have to cast your mind back to when you were a kid, and you plonked yourself down in front of the TV to watch your favourite show, and vainly attempted to do your homework.

The only time carrying out multiple tasks at a time is OK is when you are doing a mindless activity in concert with one that requires your mental focus, such as washing the dishes while listening to a podcast.

I know we’re all in a rush these days and trying to cram as much into our life as possible.

But attempting to do more than one activity at a time means you are so much more likely to make mistakes.

A blunder like mine, can potentially damage your credibility and reputation, especially if there is sensitive information being sent to the wrong person or people.

So, slow down and do one task at a time.

© 2020 Susan Weser.  All rights reserved.