Why we love multitasking

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

Only the lazy has not heard about the dangers of multitasking. Why do we love this format of work and can we use it with benefit? In this article, a few words in defense of multitasking.

You are almost certainly familiar with the situation when at work you have, in addition to many work programs and documents, open mail, two or three social networks and a corporate chat. And, of course, you manage to communicate with colleagues while drinking tea. Multitasking has penetrated so deeply into our lives that it no longer seems like something surprising. We've all been a bit of a Caesari for a long time, and not only at work: surely many of you watch TV and chat from your phone at the same time.

The prevailing opinion is that it is always better to complete one task before proceeding to the next, but in reality few do this. Working on two or three tasks at the same time, we feel busy and hopeful that this way we save a lot of time. However, the worm of doubts that we could be more productive at work does not disappear.

In a study conducted over several decades by Allen Bluedorn, it was found that the effectiveness of monochronism (performing tasks one at a time, sequentially) or multitasking is a matter of personal preference. Some people actually feel better doing tasks one at a time, others are quite happy in jobs that require multitasking. However, this does not mean that they do all the work faster.

Research on forced multitasking appears to support the conventional wisdom on the benefits of sequential task completion at first glance. In conditions where subjects need to switch between different tasks or perform two tasks at the same time, many experience problems with residual attention.

Experiments have shown that when you switch from one task to another, some of your brain's resources continue to work on the previous task.

Each time you switch between tasks, you must remind yourself of what you were doing before, and at the same time disconnect from the previous task. Using attention, short-term memory, and executive function to solve more than one task at the same time creates an increased cognitive load, and you can exceed your limit when solving complex tasks. At the same time, productivity inevitably suffers.

Many researchers come to the conclusion that we are slow and less accurate when forced to switch between two or more tasks. However, Sophie Leroy's research on residual attention has found that our brains are able to quickly get rid of the “aftertaste” of a previous task if forced to work in a time-limited environment. When subjects were given tight deadlines, they made cognitively less difficult decisions. This, in turn, allows you to quickly get rid of focus on the previous task and proceed to the next fully armed. The approaching deadline makes us more focused.

Multitasking is more difficult if the tasks are similar. For example, it is difficult to talk on the phone and answer emails because both actions use similar thought processes. If the tasks are very different, multitasking can even improve performance.

A 2015 study at the University of Florida found subjects were asked to sit on exercise bikes and pedal at a comfortable speed for two minutes. Then they did the same, but this time in front of a screen on which cognitive tests of varying difficulty were presented. As a result, the subjects pedaled 25% faster when receiving a cognitive task, and without prejudice to its solution.

The study authors suggested that in the case of mechanical activities such as exercising on a stationary bike, some distraction may even be beneficial.

Just over 2% of people are brilliant at multitasking without sacrificing performance. This small group was discovered by accident by psychologists at the University of Utah. David Strayer and Jason Watson found out why talking on a cell phone while driving is so much more dangerous than talking to a passenger who is traveling with you in the car (because the passenger naturally ends the conversation in a dangerous traffic situation).

They discovered something that at first seemed like a flaw in the data: a person who drives equally well regardless of distractions. During the data check, it turned out that such a person was not alone.

On average, two out of a hundred people are super multitaskers - able to concentrate on multiple tasks without sacrificing productivity.

Interestingly, the same psychologists found that the more people were confident in their own multitasking, the worse they passed tests where they were required to memorize a list of words while solving a math problem.

But, even if you're not multitasking, the habit of surfing the web while playing a computer game, listening to music, and checking your email can give you a small bonus. Kelvin Lui and Alan Wong of the University of Hong Kong found that people who regularly use two or three sources of information better integrate information from their eyes and ears.

An amazing fact about multitasking is that despite the increase in cognitive load, many of us cannot refuse to work in this format. Why do we like this? While not objectively the most efficient way of working, it seems less difficult because we are constantly distracted a little by trying to "eat the elephant."

Along with its obvious disadvantages, multitasking has some advantages. There are circumstances in which this form of work is preferable: when we are in no hurry and perform creative tasks that encourage us to think wider, or when we need to distract ourselves a little by doing monotonous mechanical work. The main thing is to learn how to use it in the right situations!