Block Out Time to Single Task

Quick Win

Have a lot on your plate? Research has shown that the best way to hone your focus — and make fewer mistakes — is to tackle one task at a time.

Try This Today

• First, make a list of your top three to-dos and block out time for each.
• Put your smartphone (and smartwatch!) away in a bag or drawer. Having them in view can be a distraction, particularly since they also provide access to text messages, your favorite shopping websites, social media platforms, weather alerts and more.
• If your task involves using a computer, close any programs and browser tabs that aren’t essential to your work. Ditto for your email and IM. Turn off all notifications. If you’re prone to checking your social media feeds often, consider installing software or applications that block sites for any duration you choose.
• Find a quiet space, set a timer and focus on the task at hand. When the timer goes off, take a five-minute break, ideally outside. Then you can check your email and phone.

Why

What we think we’re doing when we multitask is often more accurately described as “task switching”—we shift our attention back and forth between activities. Task switching can cause you to lose focus and perform more poorly. In a study published in 2019 in the PNAS, researchers analyzed data from 1,000 adults ages 21 80 who played online brain-training games. They found that task switching resulted in slower performance — even in those who were familiar with the games due to lots of practice. And people who did the most “media multitasking” — such as scrolling through Facebook while writing an email — were more distracted and performed worse on exercises designed to test working memory, a study of 317 adults ages 19 to 64 years published in 2016 in Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.