Multitasking Myth

Show the mental cost of switching between tasks and the benefits of doing one task at a time. Help people see why limiting work in progress leads to faster results, fewer mistakes, and less stress.

1. Before the game Explain the setup: They will play two short rounds. Both involve entering the same data, but in a different order. The goal is accuracy first, speed second. Hand out pens to everyone.

🌐 Online: share the game link in the chat. Participants open it in their browser and join the session. No accounts or setup needed.

2. Round 1: Multitasking In the first round, participants work on multiple series simultaneously (numbers, letters, roman). They enter one value in the first series, then switch to the next one, enter a value, switch again, and so on. Cycling through all series before completing any single one. ⏰ The timer starts as soon as the first value is entered, so participants can take a moment to review the data before they begin.
3. Round 2. Mono-tasking In the second round, participants complete the same data, but this time they finish one series before moving to the next. Same data, same task. Completely different experience.
4. After the game - the debrief When both rounds are done, compare times between the rounds for everyone. 🌐 Online: Charts are displayed for each user showing the difference between rounds.

Key debrief questions:

• What did you notice about speed? Most participants are much faster in roud 2.
• What did you notice about how it felt? Usually round 1 feels stressful, round 2 more calm and focused.
• What did you notice on when the first series was finished? The analog could be when do we first provide value to our customers?
• Where did this show up in real work? Examples might be context-switching between features, "quick questions" that break flow, too many items in progress, ...
• What would need to change for your team to work more sequentially? Move the conversation from insight to action: WIP limits, focus time, fewer parallel projects, etc.

Facilitator tips:

• Don't reveal the purpose before round 1. If participants know they are about to learn multitasking is bad, the exercise loses its punch. Just say "You will play to rounds of the same task. Focus on accuracy:"
• Works at any experience level. The game is effective with both teams that think they are great at multitasking, leadership groups debating priorities, or new hires learning agile ways of working.
• Pairs well with: The Penny Game (which teaches flow and batch sizes from a different angle) and a discussion about WIP limits or Kanban.
• Let the results do the talking. Resist the urge to explain the lession before the debrief. Show the results, ask questions, and let the group discover insights themselves.

The Multitasking Myth game is based on research in cognitive psychology showing that what most people call "multitasking" is actually rapid task-switching - and that each switch carries a measurable cost in time and accuracy.

Gerald Weinberg's work on the hidden cost of context-switching in software development (from Quality Software Management) estimated that each additional parallel project reduces productive time by roughly 20%.

This digital version was created by FacilitatorKit.co to bring the exercise into online and hybrid workshop settings with minimal setup.