You go slower when you juggle multiple tasks.
Repeat after me. Working on multiple items, tasks at the sam time slows down everything. A better option is to focus on one task at a time. This way you finish that item with no distractions. and then move onto the next one. Each item receives your full focus.
When you’re working on multiple things you make it harder to prioritise work and everything slows down. When you’re working on only one thing at a time, it is easier to focus on that one thing. It also means you finish it sooner too.
If you’re working on more than one thing at a time you are multitasking. Repeat after me: multitasking is evil. It sucks away your time and energy as you move from one task to the next and then back again.
Yes, I know you can knit and watch tv at the same time. I also know you can walk and talk at the same time too. Those each rely on muscle memory. You don’t need to think about breathing, walking and such. They happen automatically.
Knitting and other skills also fall into this to some extent too once you become proficient enough and your memory takes over. That’s why you can have a conversation with someone knitting and they barely slow down, unless they come to a tricky part in the pattern.
These are poor comparisons though. Writing software is a complex task so moving from one task to another means you need to remember what’s involved in the task. Which libraries do you need to recall, how does this component connect with others? All sorts of things need to be loaded into your memory before you can start. This is why you take such a hit on productivity when someone interrupts you, or you need to switch to another task in another part of the system. Yes, you’re still typing, but it is different libraries, different connections that you need to recall for the task.
Teams should focus on one task at a time too
This applies to teams too. The team should ideally work on one thing at a time. Yes, everybody works together.
Work on one thing at a time until it is done. Then move onto another one. This means you finish more things too, which moves your project forward more smoothly.
Prioritise your work and build your app in thin vertical slices, so that each task contributes to a thin slice, and you’ll know what to do ‘next’. Start with the riskiest thing, and keep going from there.
This post is part of a project pulling together my materials and ideas about Teaching Team Collaboration: the Human-Side of Software Development for software development to students.
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The ideas above are from my book 101+ Ideas to Improve Team Collaboration, which covers all of these little things that students can do to improve their collaboration. Also available via Kindle.