Multitasking: why it's bad for you and what to do about it.

You're probably familiar with the promise of multitasking. People say that if you can juggle multiple tasks at once, then you'll be more productive. This isn't true for most people.

When you're in the middle of doing several things at once, are you really getting more done? Or could you be hurting your productivity? There's no denying that multitasking sounds appealing. But research shows it may be a myth.

Yes, it is a myth. The most important thing to know about multitasking is that it does not exist. It's impossible for the human brain to do two things at once, so whatever you're doing more than one thing at a time is really just switching between different activities very quickly.

In our culture of instant gratification, we're constantly looking for ways to do more in less time. While multitasking seems like a great way to get a lot done, it's really a process that causes us to focus on too much at one time. We all have things we want or need to do, but when we try to do everything at once, nothing gets done well.

What's the matter with it

Multi-tasking Can Harm Your Memory Ability. If you find yourself multi-tasking, each task that your mind is engaged in will drain a part of your mental energy. As your mental energy drains, you become more absent-minded. This is because your mind begins to drift.

On average, it takes us 25 minutes to refocus on the original task after an interruption. And that's not counting the number of times you switch between tasks. Multitasking can be destructive to productivity and is often cited as a reason for our shrinking attention spans.

Even if you could complete the two tasks successfully, you will quite probably not recall how you completed the tasks. This is because our brain does not have the ability to fully focus on two or several tasks at the same time.

Each time you multi-task, your mind becomes a juggling act. When you multitask, you are diluting your mind’s investment towards each task.

Multi-tasking Is Safe Only If Different Stimuli Are Used

Multi-tasking is safer if the tasks involved do not use the same stimuli, such as reading a message from the laptop while listening to music. Our brain is not designed to deal with the same stimulus challenge at the exact same time.

That is why driving a vehicle and texting on a phone at the same time is considered extremely dangerous. You are using the same visual stimulus. They are both competing for the same limited focus. Although it appears you are multi-tasking, you can only be actively engaged with one or the other.

So instead of doing two things at once, you are actually rapidly switching from one to the other, and back again. If your attention is attracted to the phone for a second too long, the job of consciously controlling the vehicle ceases, and catastrophe can follow.

Another example is when you are attempting to listen to multiple conversations around you. It is impossible to listen to two people who are talking to you simultaneously, because your auditory stimulus becomes overwhelmed.

Although technology today makes it difficult for us to avoid multi-tasking, just make yourself more aware of when it is happening and try to remove the overload on your mind as much as possible.

Multitasking is a myth. When we think we're doing multiple things at once, we're really just switching back and forth between tasks. At first glance, multitasking may seem like a good way to get more done in less time, but the truth is that it's a productivity killer. If you want to be as productive as possible each day, try to focus on one task at a time instead of trying to do several things at once.

'till next time

Xoxo,

Gerthy