The Power of Single-Tasking in Medicine

Full-time physicians are busy. Besides spending a majority of your time doing work-related tasks, many physicians are also responsible for chores at home, caring for children or parents. Multitasking seems to be a good idea – if you can do several things simultaneously, you get to complete those few things all at once. Some people also believe that the only way to fit the busy lifestyle is to multitask.

I invite you to be curious and question the belief that multitasking is necessary. It is certainly a convincing case, except that you also have to take into account the time spent in completing those tasks. You are attempting to multitask because you think that saves you time. What if it does not? Studies have shown that multitasking actually decreases your efficiency, which means that for the same few tasks, it will take you longer to complete if you try to do them all at once, as opposed to doing each task one at a time.

Why is that? Nothing has gone wrong. Our brain is not designed to focus on more than one thing at a time. When you try to do several things which all require some degree of concentration, it is as if you are carrying a pile of dishes with one hand, juggling balls with the other hand while walking on a tightrope high above the ground. That is some daring and dangerous act – anything can fall at any time – you can fall off the rope at any time too. Just imagining the image of the juggler trying to balance everything while moving forward makes me feel stressed and overwhelmed. Suddenly more ideas emerge from your mind – it is too much to do. I cannot do anything well. This is draining…

Multitasking is not a necessity for physicians (or for anyone else). Allow yourself to accept that it is okay to do only one thing at a time. When you focus on one thing, the undivided attention helps you concentrate and finish the task more efficiently and oftentimes, better quality. Do one thing at a time and do it well.

Sure, there are multiple things to do in a day. As a physician, you have patients to see, notes to write, phone calls to answer, test results to review, and many more tasks. Prioritize. Prioritize with a general idea first. For example, for outpatient settings, prioritize seeing the patients according to the schedule. Finish all the tasks related to one patient before starting on another patient. Unless there is a life-threatening situation, any phone calls or interruptions can wait. For the inpatient setting, prioritize the critically ill patients first. Take care of one patient at a time.

While you are doing one thing at a time, it is best to batch similar tasks and do them in blocks. When your brain is conditioned to do one thing, it can react faster to do similar tasks one after another. Just like an assembly line, you are keeping it simple, using a certain few skill sets to complete similar tasks.

Each interruption is a temptation to multitask. Guard your mind about it. When there is an interruption, remind yourself to finish what you are doing first – unless that interruption is an emergency. Come up with strategies to minimize interruptions. Delegate as many tasks as possible. Set protocols to standardize tasks. The less interruptions you have, the better you can focus doing one thing at a time.

Having a busy life does not make it necessary to multitask. Attempting to multitask actually increases the time it takes for you to complete those tasks if you were to do them one at a time. Prioritize what to do. Focus on doing one thing at a time. Batch similar tasks and do them in blocks. Whatever you can delegate, delegate. You will find that it is easier to keep things simple in your mind when you focus on one thing at a time. You will also perform each task more efficiently and well.