Doing multiple things at once is simply the way many of us live. How often do you text while stuck in traffic or switching between the news and your inbox?
“We get caught in this trap of multitasking, without even realizing we're doing it,” said Nicole Byers, a neuropsychologist in Calgary, Alberta. “Our modern world — where many of us spend most of the day in front of screens — really forces our brains to multitask,” she said.
Experts say it's not possible to do two things at once—unless we can do one without thinking too much (like walking while talking to a friend).
“In general, When people think they are multitasking, they are actually shifting their attention between two separate tasks.”said Gloria Mark, a computer science professor at the University of California, Irvine.
Consider what happens when you focus on a single task, like making dinner. Different regions of the brain, collectively called the cognitive control network, collaborate to make this happen, said Anthony Wagner, a professor of psychology at Stanford University in California. This network includes areas of the brain that are involved in executive function, or the ability to plan and carry out goal-oriented behavior. They create a mental model of the task being performed and what is needed to do it. Your brain could do this, Wagner said, by drawing on both external and internal information, such as the ingredients in your refrigerator or your memory of the recipe.
Mark compared this process to drawing on a mental whiteboard. But if your friend calls you to rant about her day, that slate is wiped clean. “Every time you shift your attention to a new task, your brain has to reorient itself,” she said.
If you know the dish very well or your conversation is pleasant and cheerful, varying from one task to another can be easy. But The more effort each task requires, the more your brain will have to sort through competing information and separate goals.
The potential damage varies depending on the activity and your ability to perform it. But “when we switch tasks, we pay what has been called a 'switching cost,'” Wagner said. “We are going to be slower and less precise than we would have been if we had focused on a single task.”
Speed and accuracy aren't the only risks, either. Multitasking is more cognitively demanding, even when we are doing things that are enjoyable or easy for us.
Other studies have found that Multitasking can speed up our heart, raise our blood pressure, cause anxiety, lower our mood, and negatively impact our perception of the task at hand.
Mark suggested that you start by observing yourself throughout the day, noticing when and how you switch tasks without realizing it. From there, the advice is simple, but challenging: you'll need to practice monotasking, or doing one thing at a time, to gradually retrain your concentration and build your tolerance.
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