October 7th, 2009

Multitasking Damages Your Focus
A Wired Magazine article discusses tests performed by Stanford scientists that suggest frequent multitaskers experience decreased cognitive ability even when not actively multitasking–having trouble ignoring irrelevant information, organizing their working memory, and switching between multiple tasks. This suggests that multitasking is actually increasingly bad for you, although the article notes that this study proves only correlation and not causation.

Your Serial Processor (Your Brain) Can’t Actually Multitask
Dave Crenshaw, a time-management expert, calls multitasking, switch-tasking in his book The Myth of Multitasking. Your brain tricks you into thinking you are multitasking by switching very quickly between tasks. He argues that this switching makes it difficult for your brain to focus effectively on any individual task. Although it seems impressive that you are juggling so much, no single task will be done well.

I’ve argued this point for years!

Entry Filed under: Personal