The multitasking fallacy

 

Ever wonder how your kids manage to spend 6 hours online on a normal Tuesday? They have school for at least 6 hours, they play football, they eat dinner, do their homework, and maybe even watch a bit of TV! They do it because they multitask.  They are on their phones while travelling to school, they are on their phone while eating their lunch, they are on their phones while they are writing their English essay, they might even be on their phones while they brush their teeth before going to bed. 

We are a population of multitaskers - watching something on the TV while scrolling Instagram, cooking dinner and shouting solutions to maths problems over our shoulder.  And our kids are no different, they often spent their entire day multi-tasking. 

The thing about multi-tasking is that it FEELS hugely effective but is actually hugely ineffective.  Working on a report for work and simultaneously answering emails often makes us feel good but in fact what it means is that we are doing both tasks in the less effective way.  This is because our brains are NOT ABLE to multitask.  Our brains have evolved to focus on one thing at a time.  When we are multitasking what is actually happening is brain switching.  What this means is that our brain is switching between the report for work and the emails we are trying to answer.  Now while our brains can do this extremely quickly it is not a great way to work.

Why?

1.       Every time we switch between tasks our brain must reengage with the task at hand and when this happens repeatedly through the day, we can lose a significant amount of time

2.       The more we multitask the more overwhelmed out brain becomes.  When this happens to our brain it stops using something called the hippocampus which is the part of our brain responsible for learning and memory recall

3.       Multitasking also means that we need to hold all sorts of information in our short-term memory, leaving less resource for problem solving and creativity

The bottom line is this - when you try to do two things at once you will not be doing either of the tasks to the best of your ability.  Now while this may not matter if you are folding laundry and reading a new lunch recipe (although you will probably not remember the recipe accurately and your clothes may not be folded as well as they could be), it can have more significant consequences in other situations.  Persistent multitasking at work has been shown to reduce productivity by as much as 40%!

Single tasking is hard for several reasons.  Our brain is used to multitasking and it is also used to the stress hormones that accompany this.  Single tasking can feel very boring in comparison which is why we often crave our phone when we are trying to complete a boring report.  But when we persevere, put our phone into another room, turn off our email notifications, put a do not disturb notice on our desk, the rewards are real.  Without interruptions we can achieve a state called flow, a state that allows us to become immersed in the task that we are doing, a state that increases productivity, a state that is intrinsically rewarding, a state that increases creativity and even supports better emotional regulation. 

Of course, we all have periods in our day when we must multitask this is being human.  But recognising the ineffective nature of multitasking is useful information to hold in mind for those times when you do have a choice.