You don't have to do it all: The case against multitasking at work

Khaleej Times

22-05-2025

As stated in last week's column, the advancement of personal technology and its use in most of our daily lives for our work is the bare minimum. Beyond being taken for granted, it's also forgotten — how could it not be, when the job was found online?
An Internet connection and sufficient tech in hand to even think about starting a job, the effort of everything we don't do anymore — snail mail, relying on phone calls before email, cutting the cord outside of official work hours, commuting — we allowed all that additional effort to be claimed by managers. Tasks and responsibilities became more intensive, the pay and hours got worse, and when you're on shift, you're struggling to keep up with the bare minimum. You can't put effort into it because you're still trying to find your footing.
Though oftentimes a lack of communication confidence can hold us back — it's held me back talking to my boss sometimes — there has to be a line of respect and responsibility. When I clock in, it is because THEY need ME. This is an EXCHANGE of goods and services, I did not become a bear chained to the ground that must dance whenever my master says so, because if I can so easily lose my job and income, they can lose their employees and reputation.
This gets to the overall decline in the value of merit and the much more overt importance of personal relationships and social dynamics to sustain hiring and promotional practices. Though many places are better for the average worker — I would argue the vast majority of employers, offices, companies and modern cities that need workers to call them home — the horror stories rise to the top, and so there must be constant focus on improving the material conditions of that worker.
How do we do this? Am I going to solve the ethical dilemma that is the international supply chain that upholds the economy in this column? No, but we can all start moving with a little more awareness of how much we have at our fingertips, and that we should take pride in the end of multitasking.
In some ways, this would be a move to an 'abundance mindset'. With work, there are multiple tasks; see how many tools you already have to use on those tasks. Keep in mind, tasks, not problems. We have too much at our fingertips with the Internet and technology for mistakes to not stem from a specific source. And when I make a mistake, it's always been from trying to split my focus.
Lack of communication, too many lines of communication, unresolved language barriers, embarrassment, shame, all these things draw our mental energy away from our focus. Our focus, our labour, our time, our money.
Even beyond work, I have been stressed planning for a job interview while editing my CV for a different job application, and then despite my lack of mistakes, I have felt terrible anxiety over a mistake I might have made because I didn't give myself that time for another proofread. Me, a journalist with a graduate degree in the craft.
So, stay upfront. Stand by your work and say, 'I'm busy, send me an email', or 'Sorry, I just saw this message. I was working on task ABC, but now you and task XYZ have my full and undivided attention'.