Are you are a good multitasker? Really? I call “B.S.” on that!
Multitasking is a myth. Earl Miller – a neuroscientist from MIT – said, “The brain is very good at deluding itself.” We simply cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. What we can do, he said, is shift our focus from one thing to the next with astonishing speed. This is “task switching”. We can perceive this as paying attention to everything going on, but we really are not.
Task switching has a two major pitfalls – You will MISS details because you are focused elsewhere; and, you will LOSE details even after you switch focus as your brain needs time to catch up with every switch of attention. And the devil is in the details.
Ever walk down the street while talking on the phone and stumble? That’s because for that split second you were focused on the conversation instead of where you put your foot down. Or the reverse, you slightly missed something that the person on the phone said (“please repeat that”)? That was because you were focused on the street in front of you. You can take this example and apply it to anything – texting while driving, reading your email in a meeting, working on two projects at once. They are all the same. Both of what you are trying to “multitask” suffer.
The only real way to deal with this is to stop trying to multitask. Deal with tasks sequentially, the way our brains were optimally design to, one after the other, and minimize task switching.
“Multi-tasking arises out of distraction itself.” – Marilyn vos Savant
“To do two things as once is to do neither.” – Publilius Syrus
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