In the past we've written about the upsides and downsides to multi-tasking in the workplace.  This week we thought we'd pass on the opportunity to test yourself as a high or low multi-tasker.  

Last year The New York Times ran a series entitled "Your Brain on Computers".  Along with a number of well-researched articles, they included an interactive test of multi-tasking ability. 

For those of you who try these tests and find the juggling test fiendishly difficult, you'll be relieved to know that it isn't just you - studies point to a 10-point IQ drop when you're asked to handle multiple tasks at once.

 

We recently wrote a blog on whether multi-tasking was possible.  We did so because more and more articles published recently point to research that shows the human brain is not that good at handling multiple tasks at once and that attempting to do so, means we handle each task more poorly than if we had attempted each by itself.

Cathy N. Davidson however has published a book entitled " Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn".  In this book she puts forward an alternative slant on the concept of multi-tasking.  

In her book she argues that the human brain is perfectly well-suited to the digital world, if only we are willing to rethink the classroom, the workplace, and how we measure success.  In an article reviewing this book, she expands on the points made.

One of the areas she expands on is the "gorilla experiment".  This study of how we pay attention sets up an experiment where people have to focus to complete the task.  During the experiment a woman in a gorilla suit wanders into view.  Many of the participants are so busy paying attention to their task that they fail to see the gorilla.  This inability to see the gorilla is known as "attention blindness" and has implications that "the more focused, concentrated or specialized (i.e., expert) we are, the more we miss".  

In specifically addressing multi-tasking she says

"we now know there is no such thing as monotasking on a neurological level. Neurons are always firing and the brain is constantly chattering to itself, calling upon different areas at once to respond in ways we are only now beginning to understand.  ....  When we say “multitasking is bad,” what we are really saying is that certain things are stressing us out and they are making us suddenly aware of behaviors that used to be so reflexive we didn’t even pay attention to them. We see the gorilla, as it were."

This alternative viewpoint gives educators and workplaces a lot to work with in terms of designing systems that allow for maximum productivity.  Have you worked in an organisation that has attempted to utilise these insights?

Many job ads today will specify "excellent multi-tasker required" and many people take pride in their seeming abilities to juggle multiple tasks at once.

Yet research clearly shows that trying to perform two tasks simultaneously not only takes longer but the results can contain a greater number of mistakes.

The reason for this is that the human brain creates a bottleneck whenever a "planning" task is required - it will restart and refocus on each task.  This process takes time, meaning that trying to do two tasks simultaneously will take longer than trying to do them in sequence.

Additionally while juggling multiple tasks, people will often find their error rate higher than when focusing on one task.

Memory is also thought to be impaired while trying to handle multiple tasks, so if the task requires commitment to long-term memory it is best to focus solely on that task.

All of this means you will now come across more people who recommend that multi-tasking is left behind in the workplace.  One alternative is practicing uni-tasking.

As the name suggests uni-tasking means performing one task at a time.  The example often used is that of email.  The advice being to process your inbox in several blocks throughout the day - rather than trying to respond to each message as it arrives.  

It seems that focus could become the new multi-tasking aspirational job skill.