On Multitasking

Ganesh, Remover of Obstacles

This is a post I’ve been trying to put together for a while, but I keep getting pulled off in different directions. But it’s early morning, I have a few moments, and I’m enjoying trying out my new 2K standing desk setup, so here goes.

Flow State

“[K]nowledge workers work best by getting into ‘flow,’ also known as being ‘in the zone,’ where they are fully concentrated on their work and fully tuned out of their environment.” Joel Spolsky, 12 Steps to Better Code, no. 8. (A more recent look: Developer Flow State and Its Impact on Productivity.) This is true for, among others, “[w]riters, programmers, scientists...” (Id.) I’d put lawyers in that list, obviously; when I’m researching or drafting a complex memorandum, etc., I’m as much in a flow state as I am when I’m hacking code. The American Bar Association agrees: How can lawyers find flow? (citing the work of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.) Others have written about it in this context, too: Finding The Flow In Law; Lawyers in Flow: Get out of your Head and into your Case; How Lawyers Can Get Into a Flow State. I’m starting with the personal observation (backed up by research discussed in the above articles) that flow state is real, it applies to legal work, and it’s a period of amazing productivity.

(An aside: One of the things I’ve found that helps me manage mental saturation on really complicated tasks is the software product Scrivener. It lets me outline what I’m doing, collect and organize the related research, quickly write down notes for later when I’m in the middle of putting something else together rather than lose the thought or lose momentum chasing that thought down to the detriment of what I’m already working on ... Again, I’m not alone in this: Scrivener: The Ultimate Legal Writing Tool; Today's Tech: How Litigators Use Scrivener (Part 1) and (Part 2); Using Scrivener for your Legal Brief. No affiliation, just a relatively underused tool I found a decade or so ago and swear by.)

January 21, 2024 update: I'm a Behavioral Scientist. Here's How I Find My Flow StateFive science-backed steps to help you find your flow.

January 24, 2024 update: Rather than be a slave to a Pomodoro timer (see below, which I’ll revise when I’m not procrastinating ;)), which, if I’m being honest, doesn’t really map well to being a lawyer (I can be “in the zone” for several hours straight putting together a deadline-driven pleading) ... Lifehacker offers: Use 'Flowtime' As a Flexible Alternative to the Pomodoro Technique, “stay[ing] focused intently on a single task for the duration of your grind time [but] you decide how long you work for, instead of relying on the '25 on, five off' framework.” To do this, start with a spreadsheet, logging time starting, the time at which you start feeling restless/distracted/disinterested (and take a break), and the time when you’re energized enough to get back to the task. Repeat until the task is done. Track that for about a week

Interruptions to Flow State

Spolsky has been writing about the negative effects of interruptions to flow state for years, and notes it can take “an average of 15 minutes to start working at maximum productivity.” (12 Steps, supra.) He expands on this theme in another article, noting “the documented productivity gains provided by giving knowledge workers space, quiet, and privacy” and how “it’s so easy to get knocked out of the zone. Noise, phone calls, going out for lunch, having to drive 5 minutes to Starbucks for coffee, and interruptions by coworkers — ESPECIALLY interruptions by coworkers — all knock you out of the zone. If you take a 1 minute interruption by a coworker asking you a question, and this knocks out your concentration enough that it takes you half an hour to get productive again, your overall productivity is in serious trouble. If you’re in a noisy bullpen environment like the type that caffinated dotcoms love to create, with marketing guys screaming on the phone next to programmers, your productivity will plunge as knowledge workers get interrupted time after time and never get into the zone.” (Id.)

Others have placed the number higher, around 23-25 minutes. One study found it took an average of 25 minutes 26 seconds to return to a task after being interrupted, a disruption reported to be “very detrimental.” No Task Left Behind? Examining the Nature of Fragmented Work. This was echoed by the Wall Street Journal looking at the issue of constant notifications (Ping. Ding. Chirp. Notifications Are Driving Us Crazy.), who observed “when something external diverts our focus, it takes us an average of 25 minutes and 26 seconds to get back to our original task [and] it stresses us out.” Another study found it “took over nine minutes to return to an interrupted task from checking email, when diversions extended beyond the email client.” Email Duration, Batching and Self-interruption: Patterns of Email Use on Productivity and Stress

Email Specifically

Without the distraction of constant email notifications, Gordon adds, you should be in a better position to reach a state of flow – the experience of being fully engaged by the task at hand.
“In a time of push notifications and instant messaging, it can be hard to concentrate on a single task at work,” [Lauren Gordon, lead behavioural insights advisor at Bupa UK] points out. “These constant distractions could leave you feeling stressed, anxious and disrupt your productivity...”
She continues: “It’s good practice to not read and respond to emails as soon as they pop into your inbox as they disrupt our flow. Even better, closing your emails and putting an out-of-office on allows us to take control of when we respond to communications.”

Source: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/struggling-to-set-boundaries-at-work-this-out-of-office-hack-is-calling-your-name (highlighting added)

Interruptions Generally

“Gloria Mark, professor in the department of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, says that when people are interrupted, it typically takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to return to their work, and most people will do two intervening tasks before going back to their original project. This switching leads to a build up of stress...” (Source) Interrupted work has been found to cause “significantly higher stress, frustration, workload, effort, and pressure.” The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress. &c.

And we’re constantly dealing with interruptions these days. Reconstructing Our Attention in the Era of Infinite Digital Rabbit Holes: “You may remember, hazily, what it was like back in the early aughts. Falling into a book or a long magazine article was easy. Boredom was possible. Long walks by yourself, disconnected from the matrix of urgent knowledge. Not overly worried about missing something important. Not aware of the critical undercurrent of the next looming crisis. ... For me, it was a slow, painful process of reconstructing my attention. Over a decade I personally built an elaborate Rube Goldberg–type machine to keep myself on track. My personal-focus machine involves a half-dozen browser extensions, news feed blockers, meditation rituals, VPNs, and productivity timers. Each helps me capture a small additional fraction of my attention that would otherwise slip into an infinite digital rabbit hole.” (Next up on my reading list: The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload.)

Multitasking

Stop Multitasking. No, Really — Just Stop It. Humans suck at multitasking: Why Humans Are Bad at Multitasking; Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work: Studies show it makes us less efficient and more prone to errors; How To Get Out Of The Bad Habit Of Multitasking; Bad At Multitasking? Blame Your Brain; Why Smart People Don't Multitask; You Can’t Multitask, So Stop Trying.

(No, you are not the exception.)

The American Psychological Association has a good summary collecting research studies: “Doing more than one task at a time, especially more than one complex task, takes a toll on productivity. Although that shouldn't surprise anyone who has talked on the phone while checking E-mail or talked on a cell phone while driving, the extent of the problem might come as a shock. Psychologists who study what happens to cognition (mental processes) when people try to perform more than one task at a time have found that the mind and brain were not designed for heavy-duty multitasking.”

(Update: The articles keep coming. December 12, 2023: Multitasking makes you less productive. Here are 4 ways to actually get work done According to psychologist Gerald Weinberg multitasking actually can kill your productivity by up to 80%.)

(Another Update (?): Found this nugget I bookmarked in 2016: Multitasking Drains Your Brain's Energy Reserves, Researchers Say (“When we attempt to multitask, we don't actually do more than one activity at once, but quickly switch between them. And this switching is exhausting. It uses up oxygenated glucose in the brain, running down the same fuel that's needed to focus on a task.”)

Take Aways

I don’t even try to multitask. I check email between tasks, I turn almost all notifications off (calendar events are the only real exception), I set a Pomodoro timer to force myself into a flow state (it’s a bit stressful but it helps me get shit done), I write down whatever one thing I’m working on right in front of me and focus on that until it’s done, or at least until I reach a natural stopping point. Am I perfect? Far, far from it. But I’m actively working on getting better. Focus is saying no.

The Wall Street Journal cites a productivity trainer for these suggestions (Was the Office Always This Distracting? Get Ruthless About Your Productivity Now):

You need a signal that tells your colleagues: Really, I’m working. Close the door if you have one, put on headphones, attach a flag to your cubicle and flip it up when you’re heads-down on a project ... Then, honor and reinforce the signal. If someone knocks, politely tell them you’re busy and ask them to come back when the door is open ... To cut through background chatter, pump your headphones with instrumental songs, a nature soundtrack or binaural beats, music designed to stimulate certain kinds of brain waves ...

All of the above is summarized neatly in 5 Habits of People Who Are Especially Productive Working from Home, which I’ve paraphrased: Set the stage (anchor work with a sheet of paper with 5-7 tasks). Take breaks. Put email on a schedule. Compartmentalize.

Music

It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I’ve put together a few tracks I can run in the background when I’m in the zone, including:

Clutter

Another thing I should mention, I’ve personally found that a cluttered environment drives me nuts, to the point where I find it hard to focus on other things. I love a couple of the observations from this WaPo article, 8 secrets to faking a clean house:

Davis picks up rooms in her house by grouping clutter into five categories: trash, laundry, dirty dishes, things that have a place, and things that don’t have a place. “It puts your brain on autopilot,” she says. “You can work on the first four categories quickly, and then toss all the things without homes into a lidded bin to deal with later.”

... Do a surface wipe
... Not to sound like your parents, but if you set up a system to keep your house clean and your clutter at a minimum all the time, it’ll be quicker to make things look company-ready in a pinch. “My premise is to do a little bit every day so you aren’t spending your whole weekend cleaning,” says Rapinchuk. “I assign specific tasks to specific days of the week — floors one day, bathrooms another, laundry once a week.”

Bond.

January 21, 2024 update, figured this belonged here: Genius Creator Ian Fleming Wrote Each of the James Bond Books in Less Than 2 Weeks by Using the Rule of Forced Boredom - A tool for hyper-productivity and success. “Fleming's method involved isolating himself in a mundane hotel room, in a location offering no distractions, forcing him to focus solely on his writing. This environment, devoid of alluring alternatives, left Fleming with two choices: write or do nothing. ... Proper self-management is not limited to your internal traits and behaviors, but extends to shaping external factors that can influence your productivity. ... By removing distractions, Fleming reduced the cognitive load required to resist them. ... Today's world, brimming with incessant distractions, makes Fleming's method even more relevant. Innovators and business professionals are constantly bombarded with stimuli that fragment their attention. The proliferation of digital devices and social media means that distractions are not just external but also reside in our pockets, making concentrated work a significant challenge. ... Fleming's approach also touches on the concept of flow, a state of deep immersion in an activity. By eliminating distractions, Fleming likely found it easier to enter this state, where his creativity and productivity could flourish. This is a state many strive for but often find elusive in a distraction-ridden environment.”

Environment

A few tricks I’ve found to maximize my ability to focus (this is still very much a work in progress).

Reading

I have to minimize not just distractions (alerts, notifications, etc), but the ability to quickly flip over to do “something else,” while I’m reading. My tools in this pursuit:

A Kobo Libra 2, waterproof, 7" eInk reader that does just that one thing and does it well. Fits in the back pocket of a pair of jeans.
A Kobo Elipsa 2E, 10.3" with a stylus, eInk, better for PDFs, not waterproof.
An obsolete iPad mini 2 (7.9" retina) (specs), which can run other software but is so slow and the operating system so many revisions behind current, it’s not exactly tempting. Best for color documents.

Listening

I have dedicated Digital Audio Player (DAP) devices, specifically, a Shanling M1s and a Sony Walkman ZX-NW300, that do exactly one thing: Play music. No video. No web browser. No games. Paired with closed back headphones like the Meze 99 Classics (or even open back headphones in a relatively quiet environment), I can lose myself in the music in ways I just can’t otherwise.

Background Noise

Not widely known, but the Apple iPhone and iPad can play the sound of rain, or the ocean, or a stream, or other background noise, to drown out distractions: Play rain sounds and other ambient noise with Background Sounds.

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