What is killing your brain fast, free and without registration

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We sincerely admire ourselves when, in an inexplicable burst of productivity, we manage to repeat the feat of the Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar and simultaneously complete several tasks. However, it is quite high. Read about the harm it can cause to the brain in the article.

What is going on in the minds of people who, considering themselves to be true multitasking gurus, grab onto a whole bunch of things at the same time? It's hard to say, but surely something scary, because our brain is simply physically incapable of doing everything at once. What is the danger of multitasking and what consequences its abuse can lead to, we will consider below.

Our brains are not designed to multitask

The brain is designed in such a way that it is most comfortable for it to focus on only one task. When we throw a waterfall of information on him, work only slows down, not bringing the desired result.

Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose research is focused on the mechanisms of memory, that trying to focus on a few things leads to severe brain overload.

When people think they are doing several things at the same time, they actually switch very quickly from one task to another. And every time they do this, certain cognitive resources are wasted.

Earl Miller

The constant shifting of attention from one to the other is detrimental to our productivity and cognitive function, because during this process, glucose is actively used up, which the brain needs to maintain concentration. It is because the brain quickly becomes unable to feed ourselves that we get so tired when multitasking.

When we complete a small task (sending an email, responding to a message, posting a tweet), we feed our brain with a small dose of dopamine, the hormone of pleasure.

Our brain loves to be rewarded, and therefore encourages us to switch between mini-tasks, the completion of which gives a sense of instant gratification. Quick feedback brings joy to the switch, the person begins to depend on it, and this can be extremely dangerous.

This is a kind of vicious circle. It seems to us that we shovel a ton of work and do a lot of useful things, but in fact we do nothing at all (or do very small things that do not require much mental effort).

Multitasking reduces quality and efficiency

Multitasking makes it much more difficult to collect your thoughts and filter out irrelevant information, and this, in turn, affects the quality and efficiency of work.

conducted by the University of London, showed that the IQ of subjects who tried to take on the simultaneous solution of several problems, significantly decreased. The decrease was almost comparable to that of those people who did not sleep for 24 hours or smoked marijuana. Agree, this is a little scary.

When the brain is multitasking, levels of cortisol, the hormone responsible for stress, rise steadily. It is exhausting and makes you feel morally drained, even if the working day has just begun.

Most of our workplace multitasking problems stem from email and incoming messages. Some studies have shown that even our simple desire to get an answer from someone lowers our IQ by 10 points.

The anticipation that a new letter may appear in the mail, or a flashing new message alert in the corner, constantly distracts us and keeps us in a state of stress. Scientists at the McKinsey Global Institute have found that employees at large companies spend a whopping 28% of their workweek just sorting out their inboxes!

Mail, of course, distracts us greatly, but messages in instant messengers are rightfully considered to be the real killers of time, since they come with lightning speed and require the same instant response.

In order to somehow protect yourself from the harm that mail, coupled with messengers, do, try to draw up a schedule for checking them. For example, train yourself to look through your mail twice a day (at lunchtime and before leaving work). Turn off notifications in all chats and set aside a special time to reply to incoming messages.

Men are worse at multitasking

The IQ of men forced to do a bunch of things at the same time is reduced by as much as 15 points. In most cases, this is comparable to the mental development of an 8-year-old child. So, if you suddenly began to feel an acute and baseless love for obviously teenage music, think about it: maybe you are simply overworked?:)

The consequences may be irreversible

In recent research, it has been suggested that the damage that multitasking does to our brains is almost irreparable.

Scientists from the University of Sussex (Brighton, England) studied MRI images of people who have a habit of doing several things at once. For example, chatting with friends while watching a movie or checking email while talking on the phone.

Those who are multi-tasking aficionados have significantly less brain density at the front of their skulls. But this is precisely the area that is responsible for empathy and control over emotions.

The only significant drawback of this study is that it is not yet fully clear whether it was multitasking that caused the change in the brain, or whether the changes themselves are pushing people into a bunch of things. Despite this twofold situation, it remains clear that multitasking will not get you anywhere good.

The moral of all of the above is this: multitasking is clearly not a skill that should be written on your resume, it is better not to brag about it. Rather, it is a bad habit that should be put to an end at the earliest opportunity.

Therefore, turn off all notifications now, set up a schedule for checking emails, and finally concentrate on one single task.