Risky Ride: We must be careful not to try to do too many things at the same time. , Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Due to the advent of technology/Internet and the resulting information and workload, “multitasking” has become a buzzword. According to the Oxford dictionary, it is defined as “the ability of a computer to operate multiple programs at the same time”.
The first published use of the term “multitask” appeared in an IBM paper describing the capabilities of the IBM system in 1965. The term has since been applied to human actions. Employees who can multitask are preferred in any organization and employees who are not able to do it or are not good at doing it can be left behind and lose many opportunities. Smartphones and computers are built with clinical efficiency and the ability to multitask with astonishing speed. We humans are somehow obsessed with multitasking and have convinced ourselves that we too can multitask like smartphones and computers. However, the question remains, is the human mind capable of multitasking? If yes, how efficiently?
J. John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist with special research interests in the isolation and characterization of genes involved in human brain development and the genetics of mental disorders, says in his book mind rule That the human brain is not designed for multitasking. We humans are capable of doing one thing at a time, not many things at the same time. He further adds that if people are still claiming to be multitasking, it is like “putting your right foot in the left shoe”!
Still not convinced? Let’s do this little exercise to find out the effectiveness of multitasking! You can just count, 1a, 2b, 3c…..we all start this count right and of course soon mess it up. But if we are asked to count 1, 2, 3… or A, B, C…, one thing at a time, we can do it easily and effortlessly. This example clearly proves the ineffectiveness of multitasking. One of the main reasons for road accidents is driving while using a mobile phone, which sometimes leads to the loss of precious human lives. Have we ever considered why driving while talking on mobile phone has been made an offence? It is precisely for this reason that we cannot multitask! Talking while driving will inevitably lead to distraction and distraction resulting in less focus on the road leading to fatal accidents.
It is worthwhile to remember that the human brain processes the information input received from the sensory organs, analyzes them and then sends appropriate signals to various parts of the body for execution. Body parts like ear, nose, tongue, skin etc. have a separate and distinct role in a coordinated manner, so does the human brain. The rapid pace of technological development and the resulting expectation of never-ending deadlines is forcing us to adopt multitasking as a trendy mantra to reduce work pressure and meet deadlines.
The problem of multitasking has multiplied due to frequent distractions leading to less focus and less output at the workplace. With the overload and constant bombardment of information from social media platforms, distractions have become common in the workplace. In a way, we are being inundated with information and are starving for knowledge! Scientific evidence shows that after each distraction, humans take about 20-30 minutes to mentally prepare for the next task. So it is better to focus on one task at a time and finish it effectively, rather than trying to do multiple tasks at once, not completing a single task effectively.
Despite being promoted as a mantra to keep pace with the fast-paced lifestyle and emerging demands, multitasking is actually proving to impair and fragment human concentration power. As the human brain’s futility to multitasking due to its anatomy is well established, we humans should leave work to smartphones and computers. The more we try to multitask, the less our attention spans and the lower the quality of the output. The economic implications of multitasking are truly staggering. It is estimated that $650 billion a year is wasted in American businesses due to multitasking.
Having said that, what is the way out then? How do we cope with ever-changing and growing demands in light of rapid social, economic and technological development? As Stephen R. Covey advocated in his famous book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective PeopleThe key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. However, we spend too much time on the important things and not enough time on the important things. By focusing and spending your time on the important things, the time required to deal with the non-essentials will be drastically reduced. There has to be a paradigm shift as far as multitasking is concerned.
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