Multitasking is something every one of us does pretty much every day. Whether that is talking on the phone while driving or watching TV while having lunch. Despite this, human multitasking is not as effective as it might seem. In fact, it can cause more harm than good in professional environments. If you manage a team of employees, preventing multitasking might be quite a high-priority task for you. 

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s quickly cover the basics: what is multitasking?

What is human multitasking?

Multitasking is a simple concept: it’s the idea that a person can work on several things at once. It involves lots of switching between various tasks and as mentioned previously, is something we do every day. But, because it’s widespread, doesn’t mean it is the best way of approaching responsibilities.

Is multitasking effective?

In short—no, multitasking will not help you get more done in the same amount of time. The main reason for this is that switching tasks requires attention, which is a limited resource in the human brain. By multitasking, you’ll use your mental resources poorly. Instead of focusing all of it on your tasks, you’ll be wasting some on juggling assignments. As a result, your productivity will decline and you’ll end up doing things poorly.

Moreover, the negative effects of multitasking get worse as people age. In a study comparing multitasking during simulated driving, older people performed much worse than their younger peers.

Having said all this, you might be confused about one thing: how multitasking feels.

Why does multitasking feel effective?

For many people, juggling several tasks at once can feel more productive than focusing on one assignment. As you switch between tasks, you’ll feel like you accomplished more than you did in reality. The more you switch, the better you’ll feel—leaving you with the false impression that multitasking is effective. This can especially become a problem after your first few positive multitasking experiences. You’ll then get used to the thrill and seek more of it when deciding how to allocate your focus to your assignments.

While this can cause your productivity to go down, multitasking can be particularly detrimental to teams. Let’s explore the effects of multitasking on teams next—covering why you might want to detect and prevent it.

The effects of multitasking on teams

The negative effects of multitasking can be countless depending on its severity. Chief among these are:

• Reduced productivity
• More delays
• Increased stress
• Reduced job engagement

Let’s explore these a bit more in-depth now, starting with productivity.

Reduced productivity and performance

As mentioned before, switching tasks requires a bit of attention. Doing so also takes up time as well, which does not seem to be much at first. But, in the long run, each of these periods will add up—taking up measurable portions of your team’s work hours. Multitasking can effectively reduce how much time your staff have at work—slowing down their output.

However, multitasking will also affect the quality of their work. Uninterrupted attention is an important factor in avoiding mistakes—which is difficult to achieve when switching between tasks constantly. 

Increased likelihood of delays

As your multitaskers struggle with low productivity, their assignments will take longer to be finished. In turn, this will cause delays in your team, which could start affecting your business as a whole. This can be especially bad if your staff work on a lot of interdependent tasks—meaning they often need the input of a coworker before they can proceed. Consequently, your company’s projects and long-term goals could be delayed if the negative effects of multitasking are left unchecked.

Increased stress and pressure

Continuing with the topic of delays, a major result of them is stress. As deadlines approach, your staff will be under pressure to complete their tasks on time. They might even be tempted to multitask more than usual, further reducing their productivity and making the problem worse. 

The resulting stress from impending deadlines will bring with it a variety of negative effects of its own. Your staff will be more likely to overwork themselves in an effort to get tasks done on time—leading to a poor work-life balance and burnout. If you’re not aware, burnout is another concept you should avoid to ensure your team can perform their best. One of its main effects is a reduction in professional engagement—which is also our next point of discussion.

Reduced professional engagement

As your multitaskers overwork themselves and become burnt out, they’ll become less committed to their work. Consequently, they’ll put in less effort to complete their tasks correctly, leading to lower-quality work. Low professional engagement rates will also cause a high employee turnover—your staff will begin searching for new opportunities. This will be costly for your business as replacing staff can be a lengthy process.

All these points highlight the importance of managing multitasking in your company—which can be a tricky thing to do. However, detecting it is pretty simple with time tracking software, which is what we’ll cover next.

How to detect multitasking with a time tracker

The first step to dealing with multitasking in your team is to detect it. Fortunately, this is pretty simple with high-quality time trackers—which is what we’ll explore now.

Track app and website usage

Tracking the app and website usage of your staff will help you see when anyone is using more than one platform at once. Of course, some tasks can involve multiple applications or websites, but—most do not. Consequently, if you detect an employee is constantly switching between a few platforms, they might be trying to multitask. However, multitasking can also take place in a less productive way—distractions.

Detect distractions and use periodic screenshots

Detecting distractions can be very easy with high-quality time trackers. For example, WebWork allows you to set different apps and websites as either productive, neutral, or non-productive. As your staff track their work hours, the app will monitor how much time they spend on each label.

Besides this automated tracking, you can even detect distractions in productive apps with periodic screenshots. This will help you ensure your staff are working on their tasks, instead of aimlessly clicking or typing away due to a lack of focus.

Manage projects and tasks

Managing your company’s projects and tasks can make it easy for your staff to stay on track. Such systems can even make it simpler to get started on larger tasks by splitting them into smaller ones. Some big assignments can seem daunting at first, which can cause your staff to start multitasking as a form of procrastination. This highlights the importance of effective task management systems.

Make use of time management techniques

A variety of team time management techniques can help your employees perform their best. A popular example is time blocking and timeboxing, which divide your staff’s work days into pre-planned sessions. These typically include break periods as well—helping your team recharge after a bit of intensive work.

Concluding thoughts

While modern computers are excellent at it, human multitasking is less than ideal. While it may feel productive, it has a variety of negative effects that can slow down your company’s growth. Fortunately, detecting it is pretty simple with a popular productivity tool: time tracking software. With a high-quality example, you’ll be able to ensure your staff are only monotasking—dedicating 100% of their focus on one, important assignment.