Is multitasking just an opportunity to mess up more than one thing at a time?

The first published use of the word multitask appeared in an IBM publication used to describe a computer back in 1965. Yes, a computer. Now the term has since been applied to human tasks and in the 1980s it started to become fashionable to use this word within a ‘work’ capacity and soon everyone wanted to be seen as a multitasker.

The short answer to whether people can really multitask is no. Not in the true sense of the term. What happens when we think we’re multitasking is that we’re rapidly switching between tasks, and psychologists have conducted experiments on the nature and the limitations of human multitasking, and the studies indicate that yes, we are awesome and our brains are amazing, but we cannot truly multitask.

The cerebral cortex handles the brain’s executive controls, and these controls are the things that organise our brain into processing. The controls are divided into two stages. The first stage is something that’s called goal shifting, and this is where we direct all our focus from one task and then we shift it to another.

The second stage is called rule activation and rule activation turns off the instructions for the previous task and turns on the instructions for the new task. So, we’re not actually multitasking at all. Our focus is just switching from one to another... quickly.

My question is…does this behaviour help us get more done? Probably, but are we doing it badly?

There’s a famous quote that I love 'multitasking is just the art of messing up several things all at once'.

Because multitasking is slowing us down, we’re going to make mistakes. When we go from one thing to another, we are likely to feel overwhelmed. It can cause stress, and when we’re feeling stressed, we tend to overreact and miss other things that are important.

It can also make us difficult to be around. I’ve worked with people that are ‘multitaskers’ and they’re very keen they be seen as multitaskers, but in truth they are often just manic. They mess things up or overreact and then that stress rubs off on the people around them.

What I think is the most important thing to remember is that trying to multitask limits our creativity. It stops us from throwing ourselves into tasks, from becoming fully absorbed and unless we are fully absorbed, we can’t always problem solve effectively.

We can, however, multitask if tasks don’t need a huge amount of energy, focus and attention. So yes, we can upload videos while we’re printing off documents or chat to our colleagues whilst making dinner for the family. Certain familiar and fluent tasks can be juggled for sure.

I’m about to have a baby, so I’ll be juggling lots of things as a first-time mum and business owner, that I’m certain of, but let’s not be too quick to brag that we’re ‘multitaskers’, rather let’s be kind to ourselves, let’s slow down, prioritise our workload, and get results.

Until next time, take care of yourself and keep in touch.

Aimee