Dr. ARCHANA SHETTY
‘To do two things at once is to do neither’ –Publius Syrus
‘’Hey, you are so good at multitasking. You can easily manage so many things at a time! How do you do it ?’ A question often asked by us to those who think can have it all. Familiar isn’t it? Millions across the globe are under the hallucination that juggling between tasks leads to higher productivity, while on the contrary the opposite is true !
‘ MULTITASKING ‘- a practice defined as handling different tasks, shifting attention from one activity to another or performing two or more activities in quick succession. The ability to multitask has been considered as a batch of honor in the modern working environment. The practice of multitasking was further elucidated by Prof. Clifford Nass from the Department of Psychology affiliated to Stanford University by conducting evidence-based research. His mission – To unveil the ability of multi–taskers. This study which involved 262 slow and fast multitaskers revealed that low multitaskers outperformed the fast ones. Surprising but true. The word ‘multitasking’ was initially linked to the computer era where the CPU (Central Processing Unit ) was designed to handle multiple screen tasks at a time. The same started to be applied to human behavior when many tasks were handled by one brain and presently considered as a mark of high productivity. Neuroscience research shows that when we try to do two complex tasks at the same time, our brain doesn’t actually multitask. Instead, it rapidly switches back and forth between the two tasks. Task switching makes us far less observant and prone to errors. When people switch from one task to another, they experience a phenomenon called switching costs – a temporary decline in cognitive efficiency that ranges from 5-15%. (A switch cost is a reduction in performance accuracy or speed that results from shifting between tasks). Multiple task goals also have shown to place greater demands on the frontoparietal control and dorsal attention networks, which are limited in their capacities.
No doubt we can simultaneously do two tasks at a time like walk and talk, eating gum and sketch, watch TV and shop online, draft a mail and talking over the phone, listen to a toddler mumbling how her day at school was and folding clothes etc. but the missing link is the inability to focus on both actions equally, especially when one task is screaming for more of your attention than the other. To add on, the entire image of a modern man and a woman with no bias has become that of a multitasker. We think we can and we should switch from one task to another instantly! To add on, the modern lifestyle is a carnival of multiple demands both in the family and work front leaving us with no choice but to juggle between tasks. Being no different than the league, until recently even I diligently fell into the troop of so-called ‘MULTITASKERS. ‘Disturbance, Distraction & Disruption’ – These are the keywords that define many of our practices when we juggle to do too many things at a time. A simple example of day to day life is many of us listen to podcasts or radio stations while driving on our way to work, but what if we intend to learn a new language by listening to audio classes while driving? Though both activities involve listening skills only, it is clear that the cognitive load is more on one than the other. Multitasking in such instances may not justify either of the tasks as both demand your equal attention. In addition to multi tasking two more practices – context switching and attention residue are finding a place in our daily lives. Context switching – is simply switching between two or more tasks simultaneously eg: seeing your whatsapp screen minimizing, opening your mail window replying and back to see who has messaged in whatsapp. Attention residue – reflects the persistence of cognitive activity about a Task A even though one has stopped working on Task A and is currently pursuing task B.
So – does it mean we have to give up our dreams of efficiency and productivity completely? The simple answer is NO. It is nice to be reminded of the simple truth that multitasking is sometimes possible but it is never possible to do it effectively as most of the time one task does deserve a little more attention over the other. The key is to know what to do and what not to do at the same time . After all …. THE FOCUS IS NOT TO BE BUSY BUT TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF AVAILABLE TIME IN TERMS OF WORK AND LIFE. Isn’t it?
Authors Biography
Dr. Archana Shetty is currently working as a Professor and In Charge of Blood Transfusion Services at Dr.Chandramma Dayananda Sagar Institute of Medical Education & Research , Ramanagara Karnataka. She has also completed her PGDMLE in Medical Law and Ethics from the prestigious National Law School University.
