Multitasking

With the advent of computers among the numerous jargons it introduced into our life, one such jargon was MULTITASKING; which means the concurrent performance of several jobs by a computer. During my college days I was very fascinated by this term and tried to incorporate it in my life. I would listen to music on the radio as I would solve accountancy problems. I felt very proud to be a multi tasker and also took great pride in the fact that being a women  I could multi task better than men. But, soon when I attended a talk by the Principal of a school in Pune who addressed the parents of that school I realized that multi tasking results in drop in productivity by nearly 40%. That is when I understood that the real cause for my not so satisfactory academic performance was due to my multi tasking. The principal explained to the parents that they must invest in time with their children and their academics and while teaching children they must not engage in any other activity like cutting vegetables or doing their own office work.

Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence says that it is a myth to think that one can multi task. Similarly, Psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell describes multitasking as " a mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously as effectively as one." The human brain functions like a pendulum swaying from one task to another while multi tasking. This results in lack of concentration in both the tasks which leads to fall in productivity. Several researchers have proven that there is no gender based difference in multi tasking whereas popular notion in the society is that women are more efficient in multi tasking.

Today's youth are very efficient in Media Multitasking. They can comfortably switch between various unrelated tasks on their gadgets. The "Fear Of Missing Out" anxiety distracts them to dangerous levels which divides their attention span and focus on important tasks. With online learning today, the attention span is divided between attending online school and simultaneously playing games or reading other texts which has brought down the learning effectiveness. Linda Stone, a pioneer in media multi tasking coined the term 'Continuous Partial Attention" which means nothings gets studied in depth.

Multi tasking is exactly opposite of Mindfulness which I had written about in an earlier post. Multi tasking is often done to save on time. So, not all multi tasking is harmful. Certain activities which one can perform with minimum effort can be combined with another activity which requires less concentration or the familiarity and routineness of two tasks can make multi tasking effective. For example a person who cooks daily can listen to music while cooking which may not result in any kitchen disasters. But, if one wants to focus on learning cooking or on the music for a performance then it should be done independently for maximum learning effectiveness.

Prioritizing tasks is the key to time management and multi tasking without compromising on productivity. Concentrating and doing one thing well is better than messing two things at a time. Moreover multi tasking results in no enjoyment obtained from either of the task done. In today's competitive world when cross functional skills is necessary one must be Multi skilled but not engage in multi tasking where attention is necessary. 

'The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but schedule your priorities.' Stephen Covey.