On the afternoon of Tuesday, July 1st, 2014, Belgium snatched victory from the United States with a 2-1 defeat, knocking the underdog team out of the World Cup.
In the following days, while Belgium celebrated its victory and advanced in the tournament (they would eventually lose to Argentina in the quarter-finals), football pundits couldn’t stop talking about the United States, and in particular, goalkeeper Tim Howard.
During the game, Belgium made eighteen shots on target, with Howard saving an astonishing sixteen of them, a feat that, to this day, is an unbroken record in a World Cups game.
(Source: FIFA.)
When asked about his performance in a later interview, Howard replied, “I didn’t worry about how many saves I made. I was just trying to be ready for the next attack, to pick out the next shooter. To organize the defense.”
Once the whistle blew, Howard knew nothing else mattered but that single, most important task in front of him: stop Belgium from scoring. Howard had mastered the difficult art of single-tasking. [1]
The Myth of Multitasking
Multitasking is one of our most ubiquitous guilty pleasures. We know we shouldn’t partake and that it’s bad for us, but we do it anyway, fooling ourselves into thinking that “once in a while won’t hurt.”
Indeed, as Greg McKeown suggests in his book, Essentialism, we can do two things simultaneously—but we can’t concentrate on two things simultaneously. [2]
In truth, when performing more than one task at a time, we’re not really multitasking but switch-tasking. We might feel like we’re being productive, switching from one task to another, but the evidence suggests otherwise. [3]
In one famous study, researchers found that when subjects were interrupted while working on a set of word puzzles and asked to work on a new, more challenging task—reading resumes and making hiring decisions—they performed worse on the next task. [4]
Nothing surprising there. After all, we all know multitasking isn’t a panacea for productivity. What is surprising, however, is why we can’t multitask effectively: When we switch from one task to another, our attention doesn’t immediately follow due to having collected “attention residue.”
“Attention residue is the idea that there is a cognitive cost to shifting your attention from one task to another,” writes Sahil Bloom, who covered the phenomenon in a recent article. “When our attention is shifted, there is a “residue” that remains in the brain and impairs our cognitive performance on the new task. [5]
The question, then, is how can we minimize attention residue and ensure that our energy and attention are focused? To answer that question, we need to talk about single-tasking.
How to Improve Your Focus with Single-Tasking
As discussed above, one of the most common myths about multitasking is that it involves switching from one task to another. But multitasking can also be as simple as working on a task and thinking about something else.
We might be able to limit external distractions with app and website blockers, but the same can’t always be said for internal distractions—like intrusive thoughts.
One way to protect our focus while working deeply on a task, explains Devora Zack in Singletasking, is to write down your thoughts as and when they arise so you can direct your focus and attention back to the task at hand. [6]
Another way to single-task, according to Zack, is to use the “cluster tasking technique,” which involves batching similar or related tasks together to complete them all at once.
For instance, if you have several writing-based tasks that need completing—such as replying to emails or summarizing recently completed projects—you might do them within one two-hour block of time.
You might even cluster tasks that require similar energy levels, as David Allen suggests in his book, Getting Things Done. Batching low-energy tasks at the end of the day, for instance, allows you to complete shallow but important tasks when you’re not in the mood to perform deep, cognitively-demanding tasks. [7]
Capturing anything that has your attention and batching similar tasks together removes the need to multitask. When we single-task, we reduce attentional residue from task switching and, like Howard, can ensure that we’re ready for anything that comes our way.
Footnotes
[1] Behind the World Cup Record: Tim Howard by FIFA.
[2] Essentialism by Greg McKeown.
[3] The Myth of Multitasking by David Crenshaw.
[5] Attention Residue: The Silent Productivity Killer by Sahil Bloom.
[6] I’ve found using the Pomodoro Technique and writing down any thoughts that come up in my notebook is especially helpful with maintaining focus during deep work.
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