Is Multitasking Killing Your Productivity?

Is multi-tasking real? Is it even a good thing? Are you really able to organize 23 different things and not truly give focus to any singular object?

I have multiple apps and multiple pages all open and exposed in order to remind me of the things I’m supposed to complete. It feels like it is helping on some level. But is it? I love to finish tasks and take great pride in productivity but sometimes it seems like I’m just bouncing from one thing to the next.

Lists have become a big part of my life. In the Notes app on iOS/MacOS you can create little circles for checkmarks and it syncs across devices. As I drive to work in the morning - if some idea hits me or I remember something I need from Amazon or an item for a project at home I’ll send myself a text in the car; then when I arrive at work I’ll go back through the texts and organize them in Notes.

This is beneficial to future me as well because I don’t delete any of the old ones and can recall the past to-dos that I wrapped up.

There is a list for my full-time job, and a list for my independent work as well.

There are lists for shit to buy at Home Depot.

There are lists for new recipes to try and items I need to get from the grocery store.

It’s weird though as I only have this brain and I don’t know what it is like to be someone else. I’m not sure if I am as efficient as I think I am.

All these lists and web pages and bookmarks and open apps on desktops seem to keep me on task. I think my biggest problem is the order I do them. As I receive that dopamine boost from completing something - I tend to do the quick/easy tasks first. Maybe that makes me lose sight of what is the most important thing.

It feels so good to shave items off your list of to-dos that quick execution overrides deep progress. At the end of a work day my brain is fried - and I know I was successful - but I still feel that I’m running in circles.

There are too many distractions these days. It is so much harder to get into the flow state. Or maybe I just need an assistant to do this tiny shit so I don’t have to think about it. 🤣