In an earlier post in this blog I urged you to be careful about multi-tasking. I pointed out that “multi-tasking” is one of the hot bywords of today, yet studies by the Federal Aviation Administration, University of Michigan, and UCLA show that multi-tasking can be hazardous to your health and that it can lead to numerous physical problems and memory loss.
New studies announced by John Naish in an article on August 11 (http://bit.ly/rgioC) explains how scientists are discovering that today’s mania “for cramming everything in at once is creating a perilous cocktail of brain problems, from severe stress and rage in adults to learning problems and autism-like behavior in children.”
According to Naish’s article, these studies are made by using advances in medical-scanning technology that enable researchers to watch what happens in the brain when people try to perform more than one complex task at a time.
And, as I said previously, the news isn’t good.
What’s especially interesting in the results of the new discoveries is that multi-tasking makes us less efficient (as opposed to what most of us believe).
Naish’s article points out that researchers are discovering “the human brain doesn’t multi-task like an expert juggler. Instead, it switches frantically between tasks like a bad amateur plate-spinner. The constant effort this requires means that doing even just two or three things at once puts far more demand on our brains compared with is we did then one after another.”
And here’s a key point described in the article:
“The real problem occurs when we try to concentrate on the two tasks we are dealing with, because this then causes an overload of the brain’s processing capacity. This is particularly true when we try to perform similar tasks at the same time – such as writing an email and talking on the phone – as they compete to use the same part of the brain. As a result, your brain simply slows down.”
Naish points out that, “Multi-tasking has rapidly taken over our lives, to the point that we look woefully lax if we’re doing just one thing at a time. We think nothing of texting while also watching television, surfing the internet and talking to our family. Indeed, drug companies are busy developing products to enhance our mental efficience so we can do even more.
And, according to Professor Russell Poldrack, a psychologist at the University of California, “Humans are not built to work this way. We’re really built to focus.”
Dr. Alan Keen, a behavior scientist at Australia’s Central Queensland University, believes multi-tasking is a significant reason why we are witnessing epidemics of rage.
The article suggests that, if you must multi-task:
1) Don’t do so in the afternoon. Researchers say that post-lunch fatigue, added to the strain of multi-tasking, often causes overload, 2) Meditate – because research shows that meditation makes brains more efficient at paying attention, so there is brain power to spare when doing two tasks at once, and, 3) Practice multi-taking with simple tasks.
I’m going to add the following 3 suggestions that I made in this blog last March:
1) Prioritize your tasks. (If you prioritize properly, there’s no need to multi-task).
2) Set deadlines for each task – in advance.
3), Multi-task only with low-level activities such as listening to CDs while exercising and watching TV when cooking.
Does this make sense to you? I’d welcome your comments here.
Three separate people asked me this week, “If you had just one Self-Management suggestion to make to me, what would your recommendation be?” My answer to all three people was the same:
In the past three weeks I’ve had the opportunity to speak at two different events, both created and developed by Mind Power, Inc. The first event I’m talking about was in Orlando as part of a program titled “Financial Prosperity,” and this week I spoke in Las Vegas at a program titled “Total Prosperity.” Both of these are exceptional programs.
