To task or to multitask? Wait, my show's on!

You're terrible at multitasking! If you were born around the turn of the century, this is likely a phrase you've heard before. Some will just criticize your ability, some will say you need to focus on one task at a time and give 100% to it until it's done. But the conclusion, either way, is my generation and after cannot multitask effectively. Back in their day, they loaded the wagon with hay while reciting french poetry from memory that they would use in the essay they were writing between hay bales. All this in the snow with the wagon uphill both ways, of course.

    But multiple studies, including the one used in this article from the University of Southern California, have made it clear that our brains are not really made for multitasking. Some things are easier than others like walking and eating, but most multitasking involves splitting tasks up between sections of our brains and not being fully focused on either task. I'd like to argue we need to define multitasking a bit better. You might think viewing a movie is 1 task, but I think a movie is multitasking if you think about it. My eyes are viewing the image and processing the images in my brain. My ears are doing the same with the audio. My brain is responding appropriately by crying in a sad scene and laughing at comedy. All the while my body is not peeing in the movie theater by holding it in until the end. These are all very unique processes all happening at the same time. 

    Now consider driving. I'm taking visual and audio in, processing and reacting, I'm using a lot of muscles, from my legs and feet pushing the petals, to my arms turning the steering wheel, and my neck turning to look behind me in the mirrors and check blind spots. All while performing processing tasks on what path I'm taking, what I will do when I get to my destination, which side route is quicker when there's a crash on the road, keeping track of turn signals, speed limits, construction, idiot drivers. There's a lot going on, so how do we survive multitasking there (Some of us don't sadly)?

So let's break the tasks into senses. Hearing, Seeing, Touching/Moving, Tasting, Smelling. I'd argue that in order to survive being alive, we have to use multiple senses at the same time all the time. So I'm calling bad multitasking when you use the same sense for multiple things at the same time. Driving is a natural multitasking, a learned muscle memory of multitasking.

So I can listen to music while cleaning the kitchen. Dishes don't really need my ears to get clean, I just use my touch sense for that. But If I try to watch tv while cleaning the kitchen, we have an issue. I have to look at the dishes to pick them up and find the dirt on them or to put them away in the cabinet. So while the audio isn't a problem, watching tv is adding an extra visual to my task, and that now has to be split. Hence I watch the tv, and on commercials clean, and now the cleaning takes twice as long. 

So we've got bad multitasking using more than one of the same sense or type of process. Everyone will have a natural issue with these. You can't write a paper while playing the flute while loading hay bales. It just doesn't work. But many people will have no issue with natural multitasks. Those with ADHD might struggle a bit though. Trying to focus when all those instinctual tasks are more of a conscious effort makes even basic things harder. I have to be much more careful about distractions and keeping to a task than someone who is neurotypical.

 Large and unstructured workloads lead to me scrambling to get several things done at the same time, but jumping back and forth, never getting one thing fully done. Structure and intentional effort to focus on one task is key here. Also picking a good distraction is often necessary. If I'm left to my own, my brain WILL find a distraction, but if I choose the distraction and make sure it's a sense I'm not using (cleaning with music), I can let my brain be distracted without it impacting my main workload. Oftentimes picking a distraction like music (no lyrics is better) can serve to get me into a hyperfocus mode where I get a lot done almost naturally while my brain is just focused on the music. All the work just happens in the background.

With love and insanity equally,

J.M.

I have barely enough mental capacity to work on this post let alone figure out formatting and citations, I am about to reference the following page

https://appliedpsychologydegree.usc.edu/blog/to-multitask-or-not-to-multitask/

Wanna read a different post, why not check out this one from one of our sister blogs.

Self-improvement and fighting against the victim mentality

Or alternatively, another of my blog posts over here.