This is Your Brain on Multitasking: “Stop It! I Can’t Do That! And You are Going to Pay!” That’s right, there is no such thing as multitasking, precisely because the brain can’t do that.
The best your brain can do is to spend large amounts of energy going back and forth and back and forth… And then you wonder why you are exhausted. Of course you are. It’s only 11:00 am and you already used up everything you had.
Let’s say you take a phone call in the middle of your writing project. An MIT Neuroscientist tells us:
The brain has to stop focusing on writing, switch to listening, and then back to writing. But in returning to the first task, the brain has to use more energy to focus and get back into the flow. According to Professor Miller, the small interruption wastes time and increases the chances of making mistakes.
Multitasking wastes time and energy, and messes up your work. So why would we even try?
Well, no surprise, we are wired for this. Back in the day when the modern human brain was being formed, it was good to be able to pay attention to a few important matters at the same time. For example: food over here, danger over there — stop whatever you are doing, reproductive opportunity right now.
Today, there are more than a few things calling on our attention, and the brain is just not designed to handle it all. Therefore what?
There are lots of tips and techniques from making lists, to prioritizing, batching, chunking, and mixing in optimizing ways. You can read about these here.
But here is my favorite, an exercise I call Focus and Release, which you can get off the pull-down in the “Complimentary” box at madelaineweiss.com.
This exercise will teach you how to put one task down before you pick another one up—so you don’t have to carry the weight of everything you do around with you all day long. That wastes energy and messes things up too. So Practice, practice, practice…see what happens, and let me know what you think.
Stay Safe,
Madelaine
But we use multiple senses at the same time; isn’t that a form of multitasking? We see, hear and listen simultaneously. We don’t stop seeing when we listen. Our brain habitually multitasks. Indeed, our observations are enriched by multiple senses working together. And we can type and listen at the same time. Taking notes in school is listening and writing. We cook and talk on phone. We multitask effectively too. Get lots done. Do wash; type; tweet.
Great questions, Karen. Actually, the authors I hyperlinked for you address them. More complicated and nuanced than you may think, and there is actually research on it. Enjoy!
I liked Karen’s comment, and your response.
Sometimes I have noticed that multi-tasking may or may not prompt reactions in others.
Early on I started using my laptop during conferences and once was even writing some checks to pay some bills and handling some mail. But another person nearby in attendance objected. I thought I was multi-tasking in a beneficial way to tap my excess energy reserve. But I guess I was distracting that person. Still, I noticed that the same person wasn’t perturbed by the woman sitting next to us who was knitting.
Linkedin just came out with and Anti-multitasking finding. Makes people depressed, and is catchy. No surprise. People cranky when they are tired. And multi-tasking is exhausting. Thx for writing!!!