Are you multitasking today? Is it possible to not multitask? How many things are you actively involved in as you’re reading this? How many apps are opened on your phone? Are you watching Netflix, listening in on a zoom call, doing laundry, catching up on emails, cooking dinner, preparing for a meeting, researching a new project or hobby, playing with your kids, or scrolling social media? Are your thoughts elsewhere? We all do this on some level. We seem to have a million things going on at any given time. Our culture encourages us to boldly share how many tasks we can juggle at any one time. The success of our day is often tied to how much we accomplish by the end of the day.
Test: If you receive a notification alert right now, will you open it before finishing this article? (Truth: I just received an email banner alerting me to new mail and I’m having a hard time not switching over to my inbox.)
Multitasking is simply performing two or more tasks simultaneously, or switching back and forth from one task to another.
It seems unheard of these days to do anything one at a time, in fact many of us believe multitasking is a basic requirement for staying afloat. Without multitasking, how on earth would we get everything done we have on our to do list? Many of us will adamantly argue that it is because of our multitasking skills that we’re able to get done the amount of things we do in the time we have. Unfortunately for our belief system and our daily routines, research shows us something entirely different. In fact, it’s been shown that when we multitask we are more distracted, make a higher amount of mistakes, and have an overall decline in performance. You may be thinking “No worries Wels, I multitask all the time, I’ve taught my brain how to function in this manner.” You may even think you excel at multitasking, unfortunately again, chances are high are that you are merely overestimating your effectiveness and productivity. Neuroscience shows us that switching between tasks takes time away on both ends of the tasks, making our time less productive, less efficient, and more demanding on our energy.
Simon Horup Eskildsen sums of Multitasking this way:
"Multitasking is attempting to handle more than one task simultaneously. The human mind is not directly capable of this, thus it emulates multitasking by rapidly alternating between the tasks. This makes for a higher rate of errors due to lack of attention, and since context switching from one task to another is expensive, the sum of time spent on the tasks is larger than if the tasks were done sequentially. "
But is all multitasking always a bad idea? As with everything, it isn’t simply black and white. Actually, distraction can be beneficial, especially during an unpleasant task. For example, folding laundry while watching TV is by definition “multitasking” and because of the TV, it probably takes longer to complete, but because safety or quality isn’t a factor, no harm no foul in this case. However, replace laundry with driving, by switching the tasks in the mix and things can change, the distraction can turn into a safety concern. Distraction becomes a concern when the split second it takes to shift cognitive processing is related to safety. Texting or video calls while driving is a perfect example. Distracted Driving breaks down cell use (while driving) into three types of distraction:
1. Manual when we remove hands from the wheel
2. Visual when we shift our eyes off the road
3. Cognitive when we take our mind off driving.
Many experienced drivers fall into the trap of thinking that driving becomes mindless with experience (autopilot); this fallacy quickly leads to an increase in multitasking behind the wheel. As a kid, I can remember being in the car with my Pop on the Schuylkill Expressway; his knees were steering while his hands and eyes were intently focused on the newspaper which covered the wheel! This seems truly crazy right, but all it takes is to glance around at your next red light to see that what we are distracted by is different it is only intensified by quantity. It’s alarming that according to a poll conducted by the NHTSA, 94% of teen drivers acknowledge the risks of cell phone use while driving BUT 35% of these same drivers admit to texting anyways. This is the fallacy!
The issues with driving as a multitask isn’t new to us, but what about the other areas you fall into this fallacy. What areas of your life are you losing time, focus, energy, present-ness, and efficacy in order to feel the perception of accomplishment… is what’s being lost worth the comfort the perception brings you? So what do we do? We find balance and we evaluate the areas that aren’t working. Yes there are absolutely things that make sense to multitask. I honesty don't think it's practical to do all things one at a time however, there are many times we simply try to do too much without enjoying or even paying attention to what is in front of us. (And here would be my usual plug for mindful meditation). Try to slow down and enjoy what you are experiencing. Stay in the moment and you might just find yourself with more time on your hands after all.
Until next Time ~ Be Well