Sometimes when I'm working through my emails, and I'm ONLY working through my emails, I'm STILL multitasking. It LOOKS like I'm focused. I'm not texting, not instant messaging, not on the phone. The TV is off. Stereo is off. And if you could read my mind you'd see that I'm not even THINKING about anything except the emails on hand. So how can this be multitasking?
Anyone who is multitasking is really doing one thing at a time. What makes the activity "multitasking" is that the person is, by choice, switching back and forth between tasks far more often than necessary at the expense of their concentration, focus, and effectiveness. If I multitask with email, I choose to switch from one message to another far more often than necessary and often end up with little progress getting through my inbox.
Here is an email. What should I do with it? Delete it? File it? Respond to it? Figure out a future task to address the email and record this task in planner? If I switch to a new email before I've taken the time to finish this process, I've chosen to switch my attention too soon. I'm most likely to do this when its hard to decide what I'm going to do about an email. But each new email presents a new situation on a new subject with new people involved. It's a tough adjustment to make and if I needlessly jump quickly from one to the next, this is no different from needlessly jumping back and forth between work emails, texting, creating a report, and planning for the weekend. I'll only succeed at ridding myself of multitasking if I take email multitasking as seriously as other more blatant multitasking habits.
