Multitasking: Friend or Foe?

If multi-tasking seems to be your default setting, here’s some bad news. Multi-tasking is not a human behavior. We aren’t claiming you’re an alien, but if you feel that you need to be attempting 5 different tasks at the same time, you’re operating more like a robot or computer than you are a real life human being. 

Multi-tasking has become synonymous with productivity and is often viewed as an admirable trait, but science does not back up these ideas. Could something our society admires so much actually be bad for us? 

Multitasking Origins

According to Peter Sokolowski, editor for Merriam-Webster dictionary, “Multitasking is from the mid-1960s and means the concurrent performance of several jobs by a computer.” 

IBM used the term to describe machines that could simultaneously work on several tasks at once. Unfortunately, this term did not, and should not, refer to human behavior because the human brain can’t multitask at all. 

Monotasking Humans

Dr. Jennifer E. Davis, a clinical neuropsychologist and professor at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University explains that the human brain is not designed to multitask in the mainstream meaning of the word. The human brain is designed to monotask, perform one task at a time.  What we consider to be multitasking is in fact task switching. The human brain can switch between tasks rather quickly, but not without some negative consequences.

When humans attempt to multitask, stress levels rise. This is due in part to the fact that switching quickly between tasks would have only been necessary for our ancestors in a survival situation. Switching between tasks alerts our nervous system that there is something wrong. This in turn raises blood pressure and heart rate. If blood pressure and heart rate are elevated on a continual basis, over time it can lead to cardiovascular weakness and disease. 

Productive or Problematic?

The idea that multitasking increases our productivity is deeply ingrained in our culture today. Neuroscience, however, supports the idea that task switching decreases real productivity and decreases the efficiency and effectiveness of our actions. 

Each time the brain switches between tasks there is a significant amount of cognitive effort expended. Over time this increases physical and mental fatigue and decreases concentration. The result is that the tasks at hand suffer. This loss is referred to as the “switch cost effect.” 

The switch cost effect results in greater fatigue and quicker burnout.

We might feel as if we are being more productive, but what are you comparing it to? Odds are you’ve been “multitasking” so long, you don’t remember or even know what your productivity/accomplishments would look like if you committed to monotasking. 

To see if your productivity can genuinely increase by ditching multitasking and embracing monotasking, try these strategies.

Monotasking Experiment 

Track habits- You can begin your monotasking experiment by becoming more self-aware of your multitasking habits. Track your habits for one week and then analyze how often you default to multitasking. 

Improve environment- Start eliminating distractions by optimizing your workspace. This can also include your digital workspace. Use phone and computer settings to cut down on notifications and make distracting apps unavailable. 

Engage deliberately- If you have a meeting coming up, consciously choose to engage fully. Do not check email or phones during the meeting. Use pen and paper to take notes and attempt to participate where appropriate. 

Carve out time- Rather than throwing your attention at many different tasks at once, assign yourself time slots for different tasks. For instance, if you need to address social platforms, emails, and create content for a project, assign each of those tasks for a different time slot rather than doing them all at once. 

You’re not a robot or a computer, so there’s no reason you should be attempting to multitask, especially when it’s not helping your productivity. The human brain  is a monotasking machine, and when allowed to operate on one thing at a time, you’ll reap the benefits.