Why You Can't Multitask

It’s a typical Sunday, and you make a mental list of all the things you have to do to prepare the week: read history chapter, finish math questions #6-19, write the conclusion sentence of your English paper and do laundry. At about 6:30 p.m., your friends call you out for dinner and you remember that your favorite show is premiering at 9 p.m. No big deal. Then you get a text from your girlfriend/boyfriend that reads *Call you later, I gotta tell you something.*

You make a plan in your head, you say to yourself “After I eat, I’ll put my clothes in the laundry and start reading, then try to knock out my English paper. At 9, I’ll watch my show and do math during the commercials. By the time ‘bae’ calls, I’ll probably be almost done and can just relax.”

Except you’re wrong. Besides having some time management issues, there’s another problem going on there that you may not have noticed- the myth of multitasking.

This is of particular interest to me because it took a long time for me to accept the notion that a person cannot multitask effectively. Multitasking was basically a sport for me. However, I want to share why it doesn’t work and how you can be more productive.

First off, let me clarify that it is possible to multitask, just not to multitask effectively- as in giving the same amount of attention to two things at the same time. You may argue that you can talk and drive, breathe and blink or even walk and listen to music. However, what you’re doing isn’t exactly multitasking.

Taking a hint from my psychology class, things like walking, breathing, blinking are called automatic processes. Basically they don’t need thought, it is more like muscle memory, if anything. According to the American Psychology Association, automatic processes are “processes that  do not require attention; they can often be performed along with other tasks without interference.”

In the all-too-familiar scenario above, what’s happening isn’t automatic. That is trying to do two things at the same time.

NPR’s story, The Myth of Multitasking, with Clifford Nass, a psychology professor at Stanford University and host Ira Flatow discuss how multitasking affects your thinking:

NASS: That’s right. No, [people who multitask all the time] actually think they’re more productive. They actually think they tend to – and most notably, they think they can shut it off, and that’s been the most striking aspect of this research.

We – the people we talk with continually said, look, when I really have to concentrate, I turn off everything and I am laser-focused. And unfortunately, they’ve developed habits of mind that make it impossible for them to be laser-focused. They’re suckers for irrelevancy. They just can’t keep on task.

So actually, it turns out that multitasking is actually counterproductive.

This is all still hard for me to believe, myself but there are some ways to ways to get in the habit of managing your time while still getting work done. The main reason we tend to multitask is because it’s time consuming to do everything and still get to do the things that we want to do. Anyone remember the quote by James Wooden: If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? There are still some ways to manage time efficiently.

Work in quiet places with minimal distractions

Ever try to multitask with a lot of things then end up taking a long time still? That’s because there are probably too many things distracting you, that it takes time for your brain to play catch-up. Eliminate those distractions and once you finish something correctly, you won’t have to do it again.

Plan ahead

The best way you can fit everything into a busy schedule, is knowing exactly what “everything” is. If something is a priority, such as your favorite show (I sure do have a few, check out my last article!) make sure that your aware of them all.

Work when you can

Instead of using random half hours to sit and watch TV, it wouldn’t hurt to get work done in small amounts of time that you do have. Even though it’s not a lot, any amount of time can be productive.

With so many distractions and easy access, it is surely tempting to want to get everything done at once. Our generation especially has many distractions that will have us thinking that we are super-humans and can master the skill that is continually proved to be ineffective. Perhaps, we can learn to somehow evolve into learning new ways to balance activities. Yet until then, try not to multitask- you’re not very good at it. No one is.