I was born a multitasker and I will die a multitasker. If ever there was a constant in my life it is
that I have always had far too many balls in the air. At times, I even deluded myself into thinking
this was one of my finest qualities – the ability to handle many demands,
situations and tasks at once.
A short time ago, I read an article about the underbelly of
multitasking – especially as it pertains to the aging brain. When you rob your brain of fully and
completely focusing on one particular thing for a period of time, your ability
to store short term memory suffers.
After letting out an audible gasp, it dawned on me that for
the past few years I thought I was just not as capable and efficient as I used
to be – forever busy but not really getting anything done. The article was frighteningly “spot on.” I have robbed myself of the ability to
concentrate and focus – the two things that are necessary for memory. When you are a fifty-two year old, that is a big
deal! I need to be kinder and gentler to
my mind. This must be a priority and
quick! Due to the amount of information currently
available and the access to a variety of media, I assume that overburdening our ability to concentrate will become
more and more of a problem for everyone and not just the middle aged.
An article published on Buffer
titled, What Multitasking Does to Our Brains, written by Leo Widrich, shows
that research proves multitasking is not only bad for our brains, but is not
the effective tool we always thought it to be.
What’s more is that Clifford Nass, a researcher at Stanford found that
people who multitask a lot, are in fact, worse at filtering irrelevant
information and also perform significantly worse at switching between tasks,
compared to singletaskers.
“Do two or
more things simultaneously, and you’ll do none at full capacity,” writes
Brandon Keim in an article printed in Nova
science NOW entitled Is Multitasking Bad for Us? Keim also refers to the Nass study which
stated the results nothing less than “a damning indictment” of multitasking’s
effects, summarizing the multitaskers’ condition as, “They look where they
shouldn’t, and their memory is all sloppy.”
In a subsequent study, Nass also found that high multitaskers have more
social problems than low-multitasking peers, perhaps because they have trouble
paying attention to people.
Another article asserting the dangers of multitasking
entitled Multitasking and Stress by Chris Woolston, M.S. suggests that multitasking
can indeed interfere with short-term memory.
Woolston quotes David Meyer, PhD, a professor of psychology at the
University of Michigan “Anytime you’re trying to multitask, you have less
attention available to store memories.”
Short-term memory loss isn’t always a short term problem. The flood of adrenaline and other stress hormones
unleashed by trying to do too much at once can actually cause permanent damage
to the brain cells that store memories.
Meyer says. After years of
multitasking, a person might eventually have trouble doing just one thing at a
time.
There you go: I now
have a scientific explanation for my inefficiency and lack of
productivity. I am not going crazy, just
senile – not really a comforting realization.
Let’s be honest, we can’t stand by the dryer and wait for the clothes to
dry before taking on another task, but we can set limits for ourselves on what
we allow ourselves to do simultaneously. If we want to develop memory and focus
we must devote time and energy to the habit of focusing on one thing at a
time. It is within our power to intentionally
control situations every day where we can discipline ourselves to focus on
things individually and give them the concentration and focus that they
deserve.
Interestingly enough, there is one caveat to all of
this. Music does not seem to break our
ability to concentrate and focus. Nass
stress that “In the case of music, it’s a little different. We have a special part of our brain for music,
so we can listen to music while we do other things.” All is not lost…
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