Despite the numerous articles on why multitasking is bad for
us, I’ve continued to engage in this ill-advised habit—all the while feeling guilty
for sacrificing productivity, something I’ve valued greatly all my life. In
fact, I used to think I must have been an “efficiency expert” in the early
sixties, in some past life.
This feeling is called cognitive dissonance—the state of
having two conflicting ideas or emotions simultaneously. While I know switching
focus from one thing to another and then back again costs me valuable time, I
also know I often feel the happiest and most productive when I multitask. So, what's going on?
To get to the bottom of this internal conflict, I decided to
do more research. How could multitasking feel so good while at other times it
was a source of great frustration and even anxiety?
Multitasking is generally defined as dealing with more than
one task at the same time. Studies have been done to show how it is impossible for
the brain to focus on more than one task at a time. The studies seemed to prove
that if the brain is forced into multitasking, then the time required to
complete both tasks will take longer and is more error prone than if the tasks
were done sequentially.
So then why did my favorite multi-tasking combo platter (running
on a treadmill, reading a novel on my iPad and listening to music with wireless
earbuds) feel so good?
Perhaps, I decided, this was not true multitasking.
I found that this type of multitasking is really called layering. Layering
is when we strategically engage in different tasks that require different “channels”
of mental functioning. With that new knowledge, I was delighted. I was off the
hook.
There is, however, a real problem with other types of
multitasking. Texting while watching a musical at the theater (Yep, seen it), talking
on a cell phone while eating alone at a restaurant (Annoying), texting while
sitting in a meeting (Please!), or the worst, texting while driving (Bye, bye Girlfriend!). These are the kinds of multitasking behaviors I advise against and are
either rude or downright dangerous.
Coincidentally, this has been a time when the focus
everywhere seems to be on mindfulness, which highlights yet another area of cognitive
dissonance for me. How can I be fully in the moment if I multitask, or even layer
activities? Yet, I realized that when I layer activities successfully, all of
me is engaged. There is zero mind-, body-, or
auditory-wandering. I am 100% engage in the whole of these activities. I am “in
the zone,” as the say. It is when I attempt to listen to a meeting while reading
a complex email that my mind shuts down and neither activity is accomplished
successfully.
My final take-away is that accepting our limitations,
knowing what is socially acceptable and what is not, choosing the right combinations
of activities that do work together, and most importantly, sharpening our ability
to focus singularly on one thing when we need to will ensure that we stay both happy
and productive, stay in the good graces of others, and, with luck we stay
alive. That is the Holy Grail of Consciousness.
