The problem with most people is that they feel like they can do a good job of multitasking when, in fact, science has shown that multitasking isn’t something humans are good at. The more things a person tries to split their attention among, the more likely they are going to perform all of those tasks poorly.

Fortunately, there’s a holiday that aims to show people that doing one task at a time is often the best way to go. This holiday is known as Single Tasking Day and is celebrated on February 22nd every year. This day encourages everyone to focus on one single task at a time to ensure that they do it correctly.

The History of Single Tasking Day

Single Tasking Day is a holiday that was created sometime between 2010 and 2020. At this point in time, we’re unable to uncover the exact date it was created or who created it. However, we do know that it was created in response to the problem of people being distracted by modern technology. People check their email while they’re working, use their cell phones while they’re driving, or try to do something else while watching television.

Facts About Single Tasking & Multitasking

Since this holiday encourages people to avoid multitasking and instead try to single task, we thought it might be helpful to talk about both of these concepts. The following facts are what we learned about multitasking during our research for this holiday, and we hope that people find them useful.

Multitasking Is a Myth

The first thing that we’ve learned during our research is that multitasking is a myth of the modern world. While most people feel like they can confidently do two or more tasks at a time, studies show that this isn’t really possible. Every time a person adds a new task to what they’re already doing, they lose up to 20% of their productivity.

The Modern Office Makes Single Tasking Difficult

Another thing that we learned is that the modern office makes doing one task at a time almost impossible. There’s email to check, phones to answer, and deadlines to meet. This results in a loss of productivity. Out of 1,000 workers surveyed, only about 5% of them say they were able to finish their daily tasks on a regular basis. The other 95% sometimes or rarely finish their daily tasks.

Multitasking Can Increase Stress Levels

The last thing that we’d like to address is that multitasking can result in more stress. As the brain struggles to juggle more and more tasks, it increasingly becomes unable to focus, and as a result, productivity is lost. The result is the person feeling hurried and stressed when they really don’t have to feel this way if they only stuck to doing one task at a time.

Observing Single Tasking Day

If you want to observe Single Tasking Day, then make it a priority to do one task at a time. That’s all that’s required to celebrate this holiday. Once you’ve finished your tasks, be sure to use the hashtag #SingleTaskingDay to encourage other people to celebrate this holiday as well and to just do one task at a time.