Human beings are apparently programmed in such a fashion, that they can do a variety of jobs all at the same time. We often boast about how we manage to do a lot of things at the same- studying, texting, talking on the phone and even listening to music. But how beneficial is multitasking in reality?
To do a job perfectly we need to focus. When multitasking, the attention gets distributed, and we are not able to focus fully. As a result, people take longer time to complete the task and there is a high possibility of errors.
Efficiency is reduced because the brain can only focus on one thing at a time. So when you doing many things at the same time, all of the tasks may not be successfully completed.
While our body may be able to perform some low-level functions simultaneously, such as breathing and pumping blood, but high-level brain functions which involve thinking cannot be performed with the same efficiency.
What really happens when we multitask, we rapidly keep switching between tasks. Every time we switch between tasks, the brain is forced to restart and refocus, and we lose time in the process.
While we are busy thinking that biting off two or more activities at the same time is making us more productive, multitasking can temporarily change how the brain works. The prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain is responsible for tasks that require attention. It helps you to get all of your attention to focus on the task and communicates and coordinates with the brain to complete the task. When there are two goals, the brain divides in half. Juggling more than two tasks at the same time may cause trouble because we have only two frontal lobes. Attention ability is not capable of multitasking.
So if someone tells you to listen to music while studying or talk on the phone while driving or type a letter while receiving important client calls, tell them that all the studies in the world have proved that multitasking does not suit human lifestyle.
While multitasking is not completely a myth, the practice can actually help. It is easier to perform tasks which you are used to doing on a daily level.
When life gives you a lemon, you focus on doing one thing at a time, because you can either make lemonade or throw it hard at someone.