A study at the University of California found that multitasking impedes the brain’s ability to absorb information, while research by Glenn Wilson, visiting professor of psychology at Gresham College, London, showed that people’s problem-solving performance dropped by the equivalent of 10 IQ points when they multitasked, and their stress levels also rose.
And if you think that cannot apply to you because you’re a whiz at juggling tasks, consider the recent findings of researchers at Stanford University in California: people who routinely multitask are the worst at ignoring irrelevant information, regularly switch betwen tasks and have poorer short-term memory – in short, all the skills needed to multitask successfully.
But why, exactly, does multitasking have such a negative effect? According to Dave Crenshaw, business coach and author of The Myth of Multitasking, the damage is caused by what he calls the “switching cost” – the time taken to switch from one task and refocus on another. “You actually take much longer to accomplish things, make more mistakes and increase your stress,” he says.
He says the habit of multitasking is “extremely destructive”, but admits it is difficult to combat because “people are so used to thinking this is a good way to behave.”
He also advises using what he calls “switch busters” to limit the temptation to multitask. These include turning off your phone at appropriate times (in meetings for example), turning off your monitor when you’re on the phone, and scheduling recurring appointments with the people who consistently interrupt you so they keep any questions to themselves until that time. Plus he suggests having dedicated time to deal with different tasks, such as a one-hour slot every morning to sort through email.
Wilson agrees: “Don’t multitask at all wherever possible,” he says. “If you are doing something very important I would suggest it would be better to shut down all channels of communication so you can concentrate fully.”
That might not be realistic when the office is frantic, but most of us overload ourselves to some extent when we don’t strictly need to. “We do need to manage our time a bit better and focus on one thing at a time if possible,” Wilson says. Something to think about before you get cracking on your next move on computer chess, perhaps.
– from guardian.co.uk