Your Life
I’m a huge proponent of multi-tasking, but my husband is not and told me that studies show multi-tasking doesn’t work. Sure enough, the very reputable Cleveland Clinic, among others, wrote an article summarizing studies saying that multi-tasking does not work. As a matter of fact, neuropsychologist Cynthia Kubu, Ph.D. explains further that human beings are wired to be mono-taskers, meaning that our brains can only focus on one task at a time. She says further that when we think we’re multi-tasking, most often we are doing individual actions in rapid succession or task-switching. Apparently, only 2.5% of people are able to multi-task effectively, and multi-tasking can hinder performance, so choose to tackle one task at a time.
Armed with nothing but life experience in juggling my responsibilities as a mother with a job managing a household plus volunteer obligations, I must disagree. Once in a while, but rarely, I will fail on a task due to multi-tasking, and I will feel really bad about it. It’s usually not anything too major, but I’ll still feel bad (Type A). However, I cannot stop multi-tasking. Also, my definition of multi-tasking includes doing laundry while working on a report. Perhaps the scientists would define it otherwise.
Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work
source: Cleveland Clinic
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