We all do it: Texting while walking, sending emails during
meetings, chatting on the phone while cooking dinner. In today's society, doing
just one thing at a time seems downright luxurious, even wasteful.
But chances are, you're not doing yourself (or your boss, or
your friends and family) any favors by multitasking your way through the day.
Research shows that it's not nearly as efficient as we like to believe, and can
even be harmful to our health. Here are 12 reasons (according to Amanda Macmillan at Fox) why you should stop
everything you're doing—well, all but one thing—and rethink the way you work,
socialize, and live your life.
You're not really multitasking
What you call multitasking is really task-switching, said
Guy Winch, author of Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating
Failure, Rejection, Guilt and Other Everyday Psychological Injuries. "When
it comes to attention and productivity, our brains have a finite amount,"
he says.
"It's like a pie chart, and whatever we're working on
is going to take up the majority of that pie. There's not a lot left over for
other things, with the exception of automatic behaviors like walking or chewing
gum." Moving back and forth between several tasks actually wastes
productivity, he says, because your attention is expended on the act of
switching gears—plus, you never get fully "in the zone" for either
activity.
Health.com: 10 Tricks for Paying Attention
It's slowing you down
Contrary to popular belief, multitasking doesn't save time.
In fact, it will probably take you longer to finish two projects when you're
jumping back and forth than it would to finish each one separately. The same is
true even for behaviors as seemingly automatic as driving: In a 2008 University
of Utah study, drivers took longer to reach their destinations when they
chatted on cell phones.
"What tends to save the most time is to do things in
batches," said Winch. "Pay your bills all at once, then send your
emails all at once. Each task requires a specific mindset, and once you get in
a groove you should stay there and finish."
You're making mistakes
Experts estimate that switching between tasks can cause a 40
percent loss in productivity. It can also cause you to introduce errors into
whatever you're working on, especially if one or more of your activities
involves a lot of critical thinking.
A 2010 French study found that the human brain can handle
two complicated tasks without too much trouble, because it has two lobes that
can divide responsibility equally between the two. Add a third task, however,
and it can overwhelm the frontal cortex and increase the number of mistakes you
make.
It's stressing you out
When University of California Irvine researchers measured
the heart rates of employees with and without constant access to office email,
they found that those who received a steady stream of messages stayed in a
perpetual "high alert" mode with higher heart rates. Those without
constant email access did less multitasking and were less stressed because of
it.
And it's not only the physical act of multitasking that
causes stress; it's the consequences, as well, says Winch. "If you do
poorly on an exam because you studied while watching a baseball game on TV,
that can certainly trigger a lot of stress—even self-esteem issues and
depression."
You're missing out on life
Forget seeing the forest for the trees or the glass half
full—people who are busy doing two things at once don't even see obvious things
right in front of them, according to a 2009 study from Western Washington
University.
Specifically, 75 percent of college students who walked
across a campus square while talking on their cell phones did not notice a
clown riding a unicycle nearby. The researchers call this "inattentional
blindness," saying that even though the cell-phone talkers were
technically looking at their surroundings, none of it was actually registering
in their brains.
Your memory may suffer
It makes sense that if you try to do two things at once—read
a book and watch television, for example—that you're going to miss important
details of one or both. But even interrupting one task to suddenly focus on
another can be enough to disrupt short term memory, according to a 2011 study.
When University of California San Francisco researchers
asked participants to study one scene, but then abruptly switched to a
different image, people ages 60 to 80 had a harder time than those in their 20s
and 30s disengaging from the second picture and remembering details about the
first. As the brain ages, researchers say, it has a harder time getting back on
track after even a brief detour.
It's hurting your relationships
"This is an area where I think multitasking has a much
bigger effect than most people realize," said Winch. "A couple is
having a serious talk and the wife says 'Oh, let me just check this message.'
Then the husband gets mad, and then he decides to check his messages, and
communication just shuts down."
One recent study from the University of Essex even shows
that just having a cell phone nearby during personal conversations—even if
neither of you are using it—can cause friction and trust issues. "Do your
relationship a favor and pay your partner some exclusive attention for 10
minutes," said Winch. "It can make a big difference."
It can make you overeat
Being distracted during mealtime can prevent your brain from
fully processing what you've eaten, according to a 2013 review of 24 previous
studies. Because of that, you won't feel as full, and may be tempted to keep
eating—and to eat again a short time later.
Experts recommend that even people who eat alone should
refrain from turning on the television while eating, and to truly pay attention
to their food. Eating lunch at your computer? Slow down and take a break from
the screen to focus on each bite.
You're not actually good at it
Yes, you. You may think you're a master multitasker, but,
according to a 2013 University of Utah study, that probably means you're
actually among the worst.
The research focused specifically on cell phone use behind
the wheel, and it found that people who scored highest on multitasking tests do
not frequently engage in simultaneous driving and cell-phone use—probably
because they can better focus on one thing at a time. Those who do talk and
drive regularly, however, scored worse on the tests, even though most described
themselves as having above average multitasking skills.
It's dampening your creativity
Multitasking requires a lot of what's known as "working
memory," or temporary brain storage, in layman's terms. And when working
memory's all used up, it can take away from our ability to think creatively,
according to research from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"Too much focus can actually harm performance on
creative problem-solving tasks," the authors wrote in their 2010 study.
With so much already going on in their heads, they suggest, multitaskers often
find it harder to daydream and generate spontaneous "a ha moments."
Health.com: New Ways to Boost Your Brain Power
You can't OHIO
No, not the state! Psychiatrists and productivity experts
often recommend OHIO: Only Handle It Once. "This is a rule of thumb for
many people with ADHD, but it can also be practiced by anyone who wants to be
more organized," says Winch. "It basically means if you take
something on, don't stop until you've finished it."
The problem with multitasking, though, is that it makes Only
Handling It Once a near impossibility—instead, you're handling it five or six
times, says Winch. "If you're going to stick to this principle, you need
to be disciplined and plan out your day so that when a distraction arises or a
brilliant idea occurs to you, you know that there will be time for it later."
It can be dangerous
Texting or talking on a cell phone, even with a hands-free
device, is as dangerous as driving drunk—yet that doesn't stop many adults from
doing it, even while they have their own children in the car.
It's not just driving that puts you at risk for the
consequences of multitasking, either. Research also shows that people who use
mobile devices while walking are less likely to look before stepping into a
crosswalk. And in one study, one in five teenagers who went to the emergency
room after being hit by a car admitted they were using a smartphone at the time
of the accident.
