What Science Says About Multitasking (+ Ways to Use It to Your Advantage)

What Science Says About Multitasking (+ Ways to Use It to Your Advantage)

There’s a debate in the field of Productivity as to whether multitasking is good or bad.

Maybe you’ve struggled with it your whole life, wish you could do one thing at a time, but still see that the only way for you to get anything done is by doing many things at once. That’s a common scenario.

We’ll now go through the scientific reasons why multitasking is bad for us. Hopefully, that will motivate you to work on this aspect of life more and see some improvement. After which, you’ll see some ways to still perform better and be more productive even if you multitask.

Multitaskers have a short attention span.

A Stanford research concluded that people who consistently multitask have a shorter attention span and get distracted more easily.

In comparison, those focusing on one thing at a time are better at controlling their mind and concentrating on something for longer. As a result, their performance is much better and they get the work done faster.

Multitasking is bad for your intelligence.

Our brains are made to do one thing at a time. That’s when we can pay full attention to one activity and make sure we do a good job. Anything other than this approach is not just bad for productivity, but actually damaging our brain.

Studies have found out that multitasking makes people dumb. It literally lowers your I.Q. and some of the effects of lowering your brain capacity were even similar to those of people smoking marijuana.

Your work performance suffers too.

If you are hoping for a raise soon, are climbing the career ladder in your field or starting your own business, you should pay attention to this one of the negative side effects of multitasking. When working on more than one thing at a time, each project and task lasts much longer and you perform poorly.

All these and more reasons backed by science are why you should single-task.

However, if multitasking is such an ingrained habit, there might be ways around it. Here’s what you can do to make the most of it and get more done:

1. Group tasks together.

If you have a lot on your to-do list and can’t seem to be able to focus on one activity only, group similar items together and work on them at the same time.

You will need the same skillset and creative energy for them all so it makes sense to do that at once.

2. Ditch the bad type of multitasking.

The multitasking that’s worse for your brain and work performance is the one that involves unhealthy distractions such as social media, stressing over future events, checking email all the time for no apparent reason, or else.

Define what these are and do something to eliminate each.

Then, when you’re back to work or study and begin multitasking, you can be sure it will be only good things that you’re investing time in.

3. Take breaks.

One thing multitaskers do wrong that makes the situation even worse is not taking breaks every hour or so. But your brain needs that. It uses downtime to recharge and then get back to the same activity (even if it’s more than one) refreshed.

Schedule your breaks between tasks so that you don’t forget it once you get to work. It’s easy to never rest during the workday and end up being exhausted at the end of it, but that can easily turn into burnout.

Give your mind the time and relaxation it needs even if it means a quick walk in the neighborhood, some stretching behind the desk, listening to music or doing chores. It’s important that this time isn’t filled with work-related activities.

These 3 tricks can make multitasking actually work for you. However, you should still do your best to single-task when you can.