One Thing at a Time

How often have you been excited to watch something – be that a cool new series or a film you’ve been looking forward to – only to then find yourself looking at your phone the whole time?

Double-screening is something we’re probably all guilty of – I know I certainly am. It’s just become second nature to watch something on Netflix and look at the phone at the same time.

We’ve become so accustomed to doing this that we don’t really think about how nuts it is. And it’s not just limited to watching stuff.

We’re always trying to do more, to get more done, to the point that we’re often bouncing between multiple tasks and activities at once. Replying to emails whilst also catching up on a podcast. Updating a spreadsheet in one tab, whilst researching in another.

It’s not good.

The Importance of Doing One Thing at a Time

Turns out, multitasking isn't actually a thing.

When you think you're doing two tasks at once, your brain is rapidly switching between them, not running them in parallel. Psychologist David Meyer, who has studied this for decades, found that this switching comes at a cost: reduced accuracy, slower processing, and increased mental fatigue.

On top of this, research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that task-switching can cost up to 40% of productive time. Not because either task is hard. Just because your brain has to keep shifting gears when you switch between them.

And the cost isn't only about output. In our double-screening scenario, we’re not really watching the film, and we’re not really on the phone either. We’re half-present in two places, which means we’re not fully present in either.

The fix isn't complicated; it’s just a little bit uncomfortable after years of trying to multitask all day long: Do one thing. Finish it. Then do the next thing.

Our brains really aren’t built for more than that.