People believe they can multitask.

Managers want their team members to multitask.

“Give me a specific example when you had to mul-i tasks with a lot of projects” is a common recommended interview question by job interview secrets books. Google shows 300,000 results. Jobbankusa.com gives the expected answer “Answer Guide: Applicant should have the ability to problem solve, handle competing priorities, be able to multi-task and have the ability to effectively process and re-organize planning structures to ensure a successful conclusion.“

Jeff Atwood at codinghorror.com gives a whole different perspective in his article “The Multi-Tasking Myth“: you lose 20% of your time for each additional task done in parallel.

A recent study from Danish researchers proved that even for something as automated as walking we have to actually think just to stay upright. This significantly prevented septuagenarians from doing simple math while walking.

The  metaphor of juggling is frequently used to represent the idea of multi-tasking. This is ironical, since jugglers do one task only: rotating balls in the air.

With pressure for getting more stuff done and constant harassment from the environment (emails, IMs, phone calls), multi-tasking is eating organization productivity alive.

Put your phone on DND, shut down outlook, close your messenger. Pick one project – a small one, very small one – and get it done.

And next time you interview someone, ask them “how good are you at single tasking?”