First, what is multitasking?
Well according to Wikipedia its an apparent human ability to perform more than one task, or activity, at the same time. Examples would be: walking and texting, chatting on the phone while you cook dinner, reading and watching TV.
We think we’re being efficient when we multitask, and for a lot of us it has not only become our natural way, it is also expected of us.
Are we being efficient or are we harming ourselves and perhaps those around us?
It takes effort to be focusing on more than one task at a time and often something happens because we weren’t fully present with what we were doing. It’s a bit like having too many tabs open on the computer, eventually it freezes or crashes.
Research shows that it’s not as efficient as we’d like to think and may in fact be detrimental to our health and wellbeing. So maybe its time you took a close look at what you are doing.
The way it works is that our mind has a finite capacity for attention on tasks, kind of like when you fill a cup of water, it can only hold a certain amount and the rest runs over the edge. So, the more things you are doing at the same time, the less you are focusing on each of them.
Multitasking slows us down, think about it, when you’re dividing your time between several different things it takes longer to complete each task not to mention the energy of switching from one task to another, remembering where you left off. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to complete one thing, then move onto the next?
How many mistakes do you find occurring when working on more than one thing? Be honest. Studies show that higher than normal errors occur especially when the task you are carrying out requires careful thinking and planning. Because we have a left and right brain, we can manage to carry out two different tasks without a lot of drama but once you start to add to this that’s when the wheels have the potential to fall off.
Next time you find yourself multitasking, and I hope that after reading this article you won’t be inclined to multitask, notice what you are experiencing in your body – heart rate increases, breath may become laboured, mind starts to race and you have less clarity of mind. Hello, you’ve just arrived in a stress response! When you’re in a stress response, you are not present! This brings me to my favourite topic, Mindfulness. You can’t be mindful when you are spreading yourself across several tasks, you miss out on the moment to moment occurrences in your life.
Remember I mentioned earlier about too many tabs open on the computer? This is where our memory bank starts to suffer, and for those of us who are not as young as we’d like to be, it gets hard to retain short term memories when constantly switching from say, reading to watching TV. It becomes increasingly difficult to remember what you just read or saw.
How many of you eat your meal either in front of the TV or at your computer answering emails, not even being aware of the taste of your food? Worse still, sitting on the couch in front of the TV with a box of snack food promising only to have a couple and the next thing you know the box in empty. When you multitask, you are not present! Food gets put in your mouth without much consideration to flavour, or quantity. So perhaps multitasking is contributing to an expanding waistline.
Multitasking requires a lot of mental effort, cramming so much into our temporary brain storage that it effects our ability to think creatively. Those lovely moments of deep insight just don’t happen.
I often hear people say to me that they are really good at multitasking and I have to wonder what they are basing that on. Especially after considering some of the facts in this article. And let’s be real here, multitasking can be dangerous! Take the example of driving and texting, we all know how too often this ends. Even cooking and watching TV or talking on the phone has its perils.
Sadly, in today’s world multitasking is very much a way of life and without realising it we are living in a less than fulfilling way. Why not do yourself a favour a try doing one thing at a time, be present with whatever that is and see how that feels. Don’t forgo your health in the race to be efficient, in the end you’ll lose the race.
