In your last job interview, the job description more than likely asked for multitasking skills. When posed the question, you stressed your multitasking. In fact, you were the queen of multitasking because you’re so good at it.

For the past few years, people have taken a hard look at multitasking. Statistics have shown that each time someone makes a “task switch,” or multitask, their productivity is actually reduced by 20 to 40 percent. Scientists have proven that it’s true.

A group Stanford University researchers set out to study multitaskers in hopes to discover what makes them such great multitaskers, the kind we all envy. What they found instead is…well…multitaskers aren’t so good at it after all.

In an article in the New York Times, researchers found that multitaskers actually wind up doing mediocre work and confuse information. The results surprised them so much that they’re conducting follow-up experiments to look at the short-term and long-term effects of multitasking.

The article evoked the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare. The tortoise took the race one step at a time while the hare stopped along the way. We all know who won the race.

For many of us, this research comes at no surprise. My organizing clients are often overstressed, overburdened, and overloaded. They try to do too many things at once and wind up accomplishing nothing. By buying into this multitasking nation we’ve created, we’re actually setting ourselves up for failure by doing a multitude of things not really well. Anyone who has ever driven behind someone talking on a cell phone knows that too well. Here in Texas, a new rule went into affect September 1st that all drivers cannot be on their cell phones in school zones unless it’s a hands-free device.

Unfortunately, we have other examples of multitasking gone bad. A recent head on train collision was triggered after a conductor allegedly was sending text messages while driving the train. We’ve seen several stories of someone forgetting to drop their baby off at daycare and left them in a hot car. A viral video of a UK accident caused by texting has made the rounds on Facebook, encouraging adults to send it to the children in their lives.

Okay, so we get it. Multitasking can have deadly consequences, but most of us aren’t operating trains and planes, so it can’t be that bad, right? Wrong. So my fellow Savvy Aunties, how do we avoid falling in the multitasking trap and set a good example for our nieces and nephews?

Focus on one task at a time. If you have trouble concentrating, set a timer for 20 to 30 minutes or create a playlist on your MP3 player. See how that feels to spend concentrated time on one project.

Get a hands free device for your phone if you don’t have one.
Be cautious when talking and driving at the same time even with the hands free device – especially when you have your nieces and nephews in the car. Now that I have some who are driving or about to drive, I’ve been extra careful to model good driving behavior in front of them.

When you are having human contact time, put down the phone and turn off the e-mail.
Focus on the person you’re with, not on what might be lurking on email or social media sites. First of all, it’s rude. Secondly, the world will not collapse if you don’t check email for an hour. Promise.

Set email and social media hours.
Dr. Ed Hallowell, the father of ADD research, wrote in the book Crazybusy: Overworked, Overstretched and About to Snap that we need to monitor how much time we spend checking work and personal emails. You can spend the entire day doing nothing but email, but what have you really accomplished?

Don’t check email or watch TV when you’re on the phone.
Think of those times when you’re talking to your nieces and nephews or your friends, and you can tell they’re not really listening to you because they’re doing something else. Hallowell calls it “email voice” or EMV.  There is a tone to our voice when we’re not paying full attention to the conversation and just taking a quick glance at email. Uh-huh. If you can hear EMV in other people, then they can hear when you’re doing it. If we’re reading email and listening to someone on the phone, we cannot do both tasks very well. This is how the information streams become muddled and confused.

What's good for the goose...
When you notice your nieces and nephews becoming frustrated at trying to multitask, encourage them to try doing one thing at a time.

Take a vacation. Please. Nothing relaxes the brain more. If you go on vacation, do NOT check work email, call in to the office, carry any of those electronic leashes, or come in and say, “I’m not really here.” If we see you, you’re here. Trust me. The place will not crumble without you, no matter if you’re the CEO or the janitor. Go and have fun,

One of the few ways I actually do effectively multitask? Sitting on a beach with a trashy book and a cold beverage. Now that’s multitasking I can deal with!

What are ways you effectively multitask, Auntie?