Essay On Myth Of Multitasking

Many people believe that multitasking, commonly defined as doing two or more tasks at the same time, is one of the essential skills to master in this fast paced world. However, research has shown that this skill is actually a myth – the brain can only process one task at a time, so what we’re really doing when we are multitasking is switching from one task to another in rapid succession (Imbimbo, 2013). Research also suggests that this “skill” actually decreases productivity and focus. Dr. Clifford Nass, a cognitive scientist, states that chronic multitasking leads to chronic distraction and increased difficulty switching between tasks. Additionally, the rapid switching between tasks also triggers pulses of stress hormones (The Myth of Multitasking,

They found that switching between familiar tasks had less cost than switching from an unfamiliar to a familiar task and vice versa; that increasing the time to prepare between switching reduced but did not eliminate the switching cost; and that there was a significantly larger cost when individuals had to switch between complex tasks (American Psychological Association, 2006). With these information in mind, there are several ways to increase efficiency and performance in complex tasks. The first thing to do is avoid any media or other tasks that are unrelated to the original task. Studies have shown that people generally do worse when multitasking: students do worse on homework while watching television, and employees are more productive when not checking email all the time (Keim, 2009). Dr. Nass also suggests that doing “easy” tasks such as checking one’s email should be done in large patches of time rather than spreading it thin throughout the entire day. He states that one would “treat [their] brain better when [they] get off email if [they] do one focused email patch every interval for 20 minutes” (The Myth of Multitasking, 2013). Another thing that one could do is to take some time to prepare to switch to another task instead of