How Multitasking Affects Motivation

Do you often multitask? Are you any good at it? Do you know how it affects your motivation? You may not consider yourself a "multitasker", but if you often have multiple tabs open on your browser, or if you tend to use multiple device at the same time (live you phone, laptop and TV for example), or if you have the habit of using your smartphone during a meeting or while someone is talking to you, I have bad news for you, you are a multitasker...

Just how does multitasking affect your motivation? In short, it lessens it.

Here is the slightly longer version. There are four factors you need to consider and control when you want to increase the motivation that you feel toward a certain task or goal. One of these factors is distractability. When distractability is high, there are several things that could distract you, or that could pull your attention away from the task you need to complete. When distractability is low, there is nothing that could take your attention away from the completion of the task before you. The higher your distractability, the lower your motivation. The lower your distractability, the higher your motivation.

If you want to increase your motivation, you need to lower your distractability. Multitasking increases distractability, and it therefore has a negative effect on your motivation.

Have you ever been in the zone? Is there a time in your life when you became so focused on something that it pulled you into it, and in that moment time and everything around you did not exist? In that situation, did you have to talk yourself into continuing on with what it is you were doing or did you find that the motivation flowed so effortlessly that it made it impossible for you to think about quitting? In that moment, there was nothing else you would rather be doing, in that moment, distractability was low.

If on the other hand, you have been in a situation where you knew that you had to start a certain task, but you wanted to check just one last email, make one last call, watch one last Youtube clip, and that one more magically turned into another one more, and then another after that, and so on until hours have passed and you still have not done what you were meant to do? That is a high distractability situation. High distractability kills motivation.

Giving up multitasking is something you need to consider, and perhaps this may help you start taking the right steps. Multitasking is a myth, although it is one that feels real. You cannot multitask. When you are multitasking, you are not doing multiple things at the same time, but rather, you are switching between task. It has been shown by several studies that switching between tasks had a negative effect on the quality of the work done. People who focused on one task at a time instead of constantly switching between task produce a higher quality of work. In other words, if you are prone to multitasking, not only are you killing your motivation, but you are also sabotaging yourself by producing results that are not as good as what you are capable of. How will this affect your future? Will it help you reach your full potential or will it hurt you in the long run?

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