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Why Multitasking Doesn't Work

This article is more than 10 years old.

Right now, you might be reading this blog while cooking dinner, watching the news on TV, and riding a stationary bicycle. You’re trying to save time by doing multiple things at once.

Truth is, you’re actually wasting time. Yes, the dinner will get cooked and you’ll elevate your heart rate. But I doubt you’ll remember much of anything from either this blog or the TV news.

Multitasking is something everyone does these days. It’s hard not to multitask, given all the things we have to do and all the streams of information coming at us non-stop.

I know, you think you’re good at multitasking. And to some degree, you are. You can walk and chew gum at the same time. Folding laundry while talking on the phone? Not a problem. A clown can ride a unicycle while juggling brightly colored balls. This form of multitasking works because these are rote tasks that don’t require much brainpower.

Isn't it madness
he can't be mine?

--Chess

Unfortunately, our brains just aren’t equipped for multitasking tasks that do require brainpower. Our short-term memories can only store between five and nine things at once.

When you’re trying to accomplish two dissimilar tasks, each one requiring some level of consideration and attention, multitasking falls apart. Your brain just can’t take in and process two simultaneous, separate streams of information and encode them fully into short-term memory.

When information doesn’t make it into short-term memory, it can’t be transferred into long-term memory for recall later.

If you can’t recall it, you can’t use it.  And, presumably, you are trying to learn something from whatever you are doing, right?  Instead of actually helping you, multitasking works against you. It’s making you less efficient, not more.

When I was at Google, I attended lots of meetings in which others had their laptops open. It wasn’t that these people didn’t care about what was being said. It’s just that they had lots of other things to do, and juggling several tasks at once seemed like a good idea.

It wasn’t.

Soon it became clear that many people were missing important stuff in meetings. They weren’t paying attention to what was going on around them because their brains were otherwise occupied. So the information shared in meetings never had a chance to break into their short-term memory banks.

Fairly soon, it became clear that having laptops open in meetings was lowering productivity instead of raising it. So we declared some meetings no-laptop zones.

// Side note: Of course, this created an unintended consequence. When people thought they had something more important to deal with, they simply left the meeting. While this was distracting for the others in the meeting, at least it was a more effective use of the escapees’ attention. //

My whole existence is flawed
--Nine Inch Nails, “Closer”

Multitasking can be expensive, too—and dangerous. I learned that lesson a few years ago. I was writing a text message on my phone as I pulled up to a stoplight. Sadly, I misjudged the distance between my car and the one in front because I wasn’t fully paying attention. I hit the other car, though no one was hurt. Still, it was the most expensive text I’ve ever sent. And I learned my lesson.

I’m often asked if this is a generational phenomenon. Specifically, “everyone knows kids are better at multitasking.”  The problem? "Everyone" is wrong. Their brains, especially the limits imposed by short term memory, are the same as those of adults. Even though your kid boasts she can watch TV and study simultaneously, don’t believe her. If nothing else, learning to concentrate is a skill that will serve her not only with geography exam but also with life.

So instead of reading this blog while watching the news, cooking dinner, and exercising, try something different. Go for a run or a swim. Do yoga. Give your brain a break. Everything else can wait.