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Multitasking Most humans are terrible at multi-tasking, and there’s plenty of research to prove it. Try this little exercise.
Time yourself as you recite the numbers 1 to 10 as fast as possible. (Betcha you can do it in under 2 seconds!)
Got that? Now time yourself as you recite the alphabet as fast as possible up to the letter J. That takes hardly any time at all, right?
Now… time yourself switching from numbers to letters, like this: 1A, 2B, 3C, etc. (Go ahead and try that!)
How did you do? It’s almost guaranteed that this third task will take you more than the other two combined. That’s because your brain can’t truly do both tasks at the same time. Instead, it switches quickly from one to the other, and every time your brain has to switch tasks, there’s a little time gap that slows you down… and quickly adds up to a lot of lost time.
There may be some hope, though. A 2015 study showed that people CAN improve their multitasking abilities. Intuitively, this makes sense: if you practice saying the 1A through 10J sequence, you will get better and faster at it.
But there are still caveats here. The participants in this study had to do a LOT of practice in order to improve. Their simple task was to simultaneously distinguish a particular shape as it flashed across a screen, while also identifying a particular sound. In order to improve, they repeated these tasks, on average, 1,008 times!
We also don't know the limits of multitasking training. While the study looked at fairly simple tasks, the brain regions involved in more complex activities might be totally different and impossible to improve. Tasks like responding to emails while writing a report (or texting while driving) involve much bigger parts of our brains. There is a significant time lag when you switch between these complex tasks. You’ll be a lot more successful if you set aside time to focus on each.
(And definitely NEVER drive and text!)
Time yourself as you recite the numbers 1 to 10 as fast as possible. (Betcha you can do it in under 2 seconds!)
Got that? Now time yourself as you recite the alphabet as fast as possible up to the letter J. That takes hardly any time at all, right?
Now… time yourself switching from numbers to letters, like this: 1A, 2B, 3C, etc. (Go ahead and try that!)
How did you do? It’s almost guaranteed that this third task will take you more than the other two combined. That’s because your brain can’t truly do both tasks at the same time. Instead, it switches quickly from one to the other, and every time your brain has to switch tasks, there’s a little time gap that slows you down… and quickly adds up to a lot of lost time.
There may be some hope, though. A 2015 study showed that people CAN improve their multitasking abilities. Intuitively, this makes sense: if you practice saying the 1A through 10J sequence, you will get better and faster at it.
But there are still caveats here. The participants in this study had to do a LOT of practice in order to improve. Their simple task was to simultaneously distinguish a particular shape as it flashed across a screen, while also identifying a particular sound. In order to improve, they repeated these tasks, on average, 1,008 times!
We also don't know the limits of multitasking training. While the study looked at fairly simple tasks, the brain regions involved in more complex activities might be totally different and impossible to improve. Tasks like responding to emails while writing a report (or texting while driving) involve much bigger parts of our brains. There is a significant time lag when you switch between these complex tasks. You’ll be a lot more successful if you set aside time to focus on each.
(And definitely NEVER drive and text!)
Audio read and recorded by Fawn Fritzen.