“Multi-tasking will not give you the highest quality of thought that man is capable of doing”, Charlie Munger
Multi-tasking is celebrated as a positive trait. People brag about being multi-taskers. They highlight it on their resume. They look down on people who cannot or do not multi-task.
Imagine you are taking a ride on an Uber or Taxi. The driver is texting while driving on a highway. What would you do? I will tell you what I did when this happened. I told the driver to get off the phone and pay attention to his driving because I don’t want to be severely injured and die. That is multi-tasking. Doing multiple things at the same time. Another word for this is distracted driving. It is illegal in many parts of the world because it has been proven to be more dangerous than driving drunk.
Would you like your surgeon to multi-task? How about your pilot while landing the plane? How about the air traffic controller? Why not? Because you know that if they are distracted, it could cost you your life. Let’s also recognize that human brain is not great a doing multiple tasks at the same time. We make more mistakes when we multi-task. We are less focused. We get less work done and the quality of our work takes a nose dive.
Instead of multi-tasking, allocate time to different tasks. Then complete one task after another. You will get them done faster, and with fewer mistakes. This will also help to reduce your stress level.