Some days you feel like a master multitasker as you drink your morning coffee, catch up on email and tune into a conference call. But did you know that for most people, in most situations, multitasking isn’t actually possible?
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We’re really wired to be monotaskers, meaning that our brains can only focus on one task at a time, says neuropsychologist Cynthia Kubu, PhD. “When we think we’re multitasking, most often we aren’t really doing two things at once. But instead, we’re doing individual actions in rapid succession, or task-switching,” she says.
One study found that just 2.5% of people are able to multitask effectively. For the rest of us, our attempts to do multiple activities at once aren’t actually that.
Multitasking can hinder your performance
Studies show that when our brain is constantly switching gears to bounce back and forth between tasks – especially when those tasks are complex and require our active attention – we become less efficient and more likely to make a mistake.
This might not be as apparent or impactful when we’re doing tasks that are simple and routine, like listening to music while walking, or folding laundry while watching TV. But when the stakes are higher and the tasks are more complex, trying to multitask can negatively impact our lives – or even be dangerous.
So-called multitasking divides our attention. It makes it harder for us to give our full attention to one thing. For example, in studies, attempting to complete additional tasks during a driving simulation led to poorer driving performance. Other studies suggest that people who frequently “media multitask” (like listening to music while checking email or scrolling through social media while watching a movie) are more distracted and less able to focus their attention even when they’re performing only one task.
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It can also affect our ability to learn, because in order to learn, we need to be able to focus.
“The more we multitask, the less we actually accomplish, because we slowly lose our ability to focus enough to learn,” Dr. Kubu says. “If we’re constantly attempting to multitask, we don’t practice tuning out the rest of the word to engage in deeper processing and learning.” One study found that college students who tried to multitask took longer to do their homework and had lower average grades.
Another pitfall is that trying to do too much at once makes it harder to be mindful and truly present in the moment – and mindfulness comes with a plethora of benefits for our minds and our bodies. In fact, many therapies based on mindfulness can even help patients suffering from depression, anxiety, chronic pain and other conditions.
Choose to tackle one task at a time
Opting to focus on one task at a time can benefit many aspects of our life, including the workplace.
Take surgeons, for example. “People assume that a surgeon’s skill is primarily in the precision and steadiness of their hands. While there’s some truth to that, the true gift of a surgeon is the ability to single-mindedly focus on one person and complete a series of task over the course of many hours,” Dr. Kubu explains.
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But surgeons aren’t necessarily born with this ability to monotask. Rather, they develop and perfect it through hours of practice. And you can, too.
“You don’t need to be a surgeon to benefit from freeing yourself of the pressure to multitask,” Dr. Kubu says. “Whether it’s taking a long road trip, organizing an event or reading a book, we unequivocally perform best one thing at a time. I encourage you to give it a try.”
Turns out, our brains literally aren't wired to do more than one thing at a time. Even when it feels like you're getting two tasks done at once, what you're actually doing is switching between two tasks at lightning speed. This process—called task switching
task switching
Task switching, or set-shifting, is an executive function that involves the ability to unconsciously shift attention between one task and another. In contrast, cognitive shifting is a very similar executive function, but it involves conscious (not unconscious) change in attention.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Task_switching_(psychology)
We have a hard time multitasking because of the ways that our building blocks of attention and executive control inherently work. To this end, when we attempt to multitask, we are usually switching between one task and another. The human brain has evolved to single task.
As humans, we have a very limited capacity for simultaneous thought -- we can only hold a little bit of information in the mind at any single moment. You don't actually multitask, you task-switch. This wastes time, makes you error-prone and decreases your ability to be creative.
It might seem like you are accomplishing multiple things at the same time, but what you are really doing is quickly shifting your attention and focus from one thing to the next. Switching from one task to another may make it difficult to tune out distractions and can cause mental blocks that can slow you down.
The frequent multitaskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another. Ouch. Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time.
For example, children with ADHD tend to have slower response times when multitasking than children without the condition. Meanwhile, adults with ADHD seem to have their mood and motivation drop more when they have to multitask. Of course, if theres one thing thats true of people with ADHD, its that theyre inconsistent.
Just as our bodies become stiffer, our brains become less maneuverable as we get older, a new study shows. Older brains, researchers found, have trouble refocusing after they're interrupted or distracted. While nobody's particularly good at multitasking, we do get worse as we age, says Dr.
A study by The University of London found that men can experience up to a 15-point drop in effective IQ when multitasking. Women faired better with only a 5-point drop, but both saw a significant decline in their capability and productivity.
The problem is that your brain is not hardwired to focus simultaneously on specific, day-to-day activities and more collective, long-term objectives. Neurological science has demonstrated that the human brain is incapable of focusing on two things at once.
The prefrontal cortex has been frequently implicated as a brain region that mediates multitasking and the switching processes. Multitasking is commonly shown to impair cognitive performance, as each switch results in a reduction in performance compared to doing one task at a time.
The human brain has a limited capacity for attention and working memory, which means that it can only focus on a limited amount of information at any given time. This is why you may find it difficult to focus on more than one task simultaneously.
This is because their brains are wired to understand and master complex ideas, patterns, and systems. But when something disrupts these patterns or systems, it can be hard for them to adapt. They tend to prefer sticking to their known methods and routines, even if a simpler or more efficient way exists.
Although many people consider themselves effective multitaskers, the truth is that studies have shown that only about 2.5% of people are able to multitask effectively. Humans are designed to be “monotaskers”, meaning to work only on one task at a time.
Geniuses have high expectations of themselves and despair quickly when they fail to produce superior results. Highly intelligent people have too many interests and tend to get bored easily.
When doing several things at once, your mind is divided between them so it's only natural that your mistakes will multiply. And according to the Stanford research, multitaskers are terrible at filtering out irrelevant information. That means that there is sure to be some mental cross-firing and overlap between tasks.
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