Are you part of the 2%?
Read to learn if you are a supertasker (sorry, you most likely are not)
Digitally Exhausted came to be because I wanted a place to share my thoughts on tech’s societal impact. My writing covers social media’s spaghetti-like complexities, internet culture, action steps to balance digital life, Big Tech, and anything my fingertips desire.
Reading (or listening) to Digitally Exhausted, I hope you become inspired to design a digital life for you, not default or “opt-in” to one.
If you’re interested in these topics, and down to stick around, subscribe 😊
Pssssst… To the listeners tuning in, I talk slowly. If slow talkers are not your thing, I suggest increasing the voiceover speed to 1.5x.
I “lose” my keys all the time. They’re either under a blanket, in a jacket pocket, or in my bag that often pretends Mary Poppins is its rightful owner; a bottomless pit of magic (aka my junk).
(Welcome to my fourth post sharing what I learned during Consciously Digital’s 5 Day Attention Detox Challenge. If you missed last week’s Digitally Exhausted share about the brain and the 5 second rule, you can read or listen along here.)
I realized I lose my keys when I’m attempting to multitask. As soon as I get home, I walk through the door and place them down. Most of the time, they make it to their designated spot on the table but sometimes my keys end up in mysterious places which usually happens when I walk through the door while I’m on the phone or begin a task right away because it’s been on my mind.
(Also… Has anyone else looked in the fridge when they’re trying to find something… 🥴?)
I stopped feeling bad about losing my keys and other “mess-ups” because I learned multitasking isn’t a thing.
Well, it is a thing, but only for the few who are diamonds in the rough… the 2%.
2% of people can effectively multitask
I promise you will know if you can effectively multitask. People with this ability are known as “supertaskers”, a crazy breed of superhumans with powers most of us think we have, but unfortunately don’t.
(Do you believe you’re an effective multitasker? Let me know in the comments why or why not.)
David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah and attention researcher, calls them outliers. During his years of research, he thought adequate multitasking was not possible. This is because when we attempt to multitask time and efficiency suffer—Strayer focused a lot of his research on drivers and cellphone use, and let’s just say, if you see someone on the phone while driving, keep your distance.
However, Strayer found his diamond—a supertasker who goes by the pseudonym Cassie.
The woman he was looking at—let’s call her Cassie—was an exception to what twenty-five years of research had taught him. As she took on more and more tasks, she didn’t get worse. She got better. There she was, driving, doing complex math, responding to barking prompts through a cell phone, and she wasn’t breaking a sweat. She was, in other words, what Strayer would ultimately decide to call a supertasker.
(This quote is from a piece Maria Konnikov wrote for The New Yorker about Strayer’s research. It’s worth the read but be aware it does count towards a free article before a paywall hits.)
What Strayer discovered is remarkable. He believes that not only can 2% of the population manage multiple tasks successfully with almost no struggle or error, but the same 2% can even thrive off of multitasking, meaning they can improve their multitasking capabilities over time. Superhumans, right?! IT’S SO COOL!
(Would you choose multitasking as a superpower if you could?)
Maybe you think you’re a supertasker. Perhaps you are. However, for the rest of us normal folks, when we try to take on multiple tasks it doesn’t benefit us in the long run.
Doing multiple things at once takes longer and hurts performance
Instead of effectively multitasking like supertaskers, we’re task-switching. We function going from one task to another, not doing both at the same time.
The other day I was responding to an email while I was in Tesco because I felt like I couldn’t wait to reply because it was a high-priority email. I was standing in the spice aisle glancing at all of the options for the buttered chicken I had on the menu for dinner that night. Tapping away on my phone, I went back and forth glancing between the spices and my phone, grabbing one spice after the other that I needed (and wanted). It wasn’t until I got home to make dinner that I realized I grabbed star anise… I’d never heard of this spice, and to top it all off, when I gave it a whiff (I should have wafted) it smelled of licorice. Y’all, I hate licorice.
Long story short: try not to multitask at the grocery store. (If anyone has recipes for star anise off the top of their head, let me know. Thanks.)
Attempting to “multitask” at the grocery store:
My shop took a lot longer.
Efficiency went out of the window.
I grabbed the wrong spice even though I don’t even remember what I was reaching for (part of me thinks it was cumin).
When we try to do multiple things at once, it takes longer because we are going from one thing to another; it takes time to reorient from one task to the other. Performance can also suffer just like my grocery shopping attempt.
Challenges with attention in the modern world
We are bombarded with people and companies attempting to grab our attention. This isn’t new news: our attention is currency.
With the value of attention, many challenges are thrown our way:
The “need” to be “always on”
Constant interruptions
Unlimited access to information
Think about these things in your professional and personal life. When I was really struggling with digital exhaustion, one of the main things I was doing wrong was feeding into the “always on” culture.
Professionally, I was answering client Slacks, emails, and texts right away because I didn’t want anyone to be upset if I wasn’t responding in a timely manner. I value customer service and want to give the people I work with the best experience, but I was sacrificing my time which sometimes resulted in sacrificing my work. (The last organization I worked with was a lovely experience because we had an online policy, meaning we had time blocked in our schedules to where we knew the other person was online, so the option to have instant communication was there if needed.)
Personally, it was kind of the same thing. I would answer people right away because I didn’t want anyone to get upset if I didn’t respond quickly enough.
If we change our culture from being “always on” and “always accessible” think about how much we would grow as a society. We would have the time to focus, a skill a lot of people do not have (and need) and employers look for.
There are many people in my life I see drop everything to respond to a ding, ping, or buzz (I do too sometimes). It breaks my heart because sometimes I’m like, “Hey… let’s enjoy this pint,” or whatever we’re doing. And then I think about my friends working for big companies and cringe at the idea (based on my assumption) that corporate employees do not have the time or space to practice deep work—it does depend on the role and company culture.
Deep work should not be a luxury. It’s a necessity to learn and improve.
(To all my professionals reading or listening, do you have the opportunity to practice deep work? If you’re open to sharing, please write something in the comments or send me an email).
How to easily take back your attention in the digital age
Obviously, this is easier said than done. When I say easy, I mean these are simple steps everyone can practice.
Keep your phone out of sight.
Turn off notifications (if you can) to focus on a task, project, or activity.
Practice mindfulness.
(For those of you reading, I elaborate on these steps more in the audio version of this post and I’ll go over more ways to harness your attention in next week’s share.)
Wherever you are, be there ✨
Smelling McDonald’s biscuits on my sunrise walk to work was a blast from the past. To smell buttery goodness at 6:45 in the morning was a fun start to the day because I got to reminisce about my Friday commute to school growing up. There was a period of time when my mom would take my brother and me to McDonald’s on Friday’s and we’d always get sausage biscuits and diet cokes—mom opted for a large coffee with 6 creamers.
(Below is a peak at the Galway sunrise.)
Pssst. Moving forward, the “Content I’m consuming” is going to happen once a month, or perhaps have its own dedicated post if that’s something people are interested in. I find that I’m getting a bit repetitive in sharing what I’m consuming so by sharing once a month there will be more variety.