HEALTH & WELLNESS

Can humans really multitask?

By Sneha Mankani
18 March, 2022

PSA: Do not refresh your email, answer any calls, check Whatsapp notifications or open Instagram during the course of reading this article

I’m a terrible multitasker, or so I thought—often guilty about asking people to repeat themselves because I got distracted by a piece of news on my phone or a meme on Instagram, or ambitiously trying to check-off a new task (novelty brings hope) on my TDL while working on an overdue one, hypothesising my way into believing I’m being ultra-productive. That is until I watched an episode of The Mind: Explained, which proposed a whole new reality that shattered my current one: I am, in fact, not a bad multitasker; it’s just impossible to even really be one.

We multitask for various reasons—the stress of time constraints, procrastination, boredom or the feeling of being stuck. Image: Getty

We are all seasoned jugglers today—we’re almost always doing two or more things. Image: Pexels

Multitasking—a myth?

We are all seasoned jugglers today—we’re almost always doing two or more things. “When you focus on a task, you are engaging the brain’s attentional system. When you multitask, you are asking that attentional system to reorient, in the case of a new task, or to divide its capabilities in the case of doing tasks at the same time,” explains Dr Srini Pillay, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, brain-imaging researcher, biotechnology researcher across medicine, and M.D. Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of Reulay, “You offer this part of your brain a challenge. However, tasks that are learned may be able to be processed unconsciously—in the background.” That’s why, for example, you may be able to drive and speak on the phone at the same time because you’re on familiar roads.

But think of it like this: we too end up opening multiple tabs in our mind during the course of a day, but can we do them at the same time, a.k.a multitask, like computers can? “A task which needs high-level brain function requires the brain’s architecture to be devoted to it completely,” says Kumaar Bagrodia, founder of NeuroLeap. This applied neuroscience company uses a brain-computer interface to understand and assess the human brain and help it reach its optimal functioning. This means that it is practically impossible for our brain to focus 100 per cent on two tasks simultaneously.

“A TASK WHICH NEEDS HIGH-LEVEL BRAIN FUNCTION REQUIRES THE BRAIN’S ARCHITECTURE TO BE DEVOTED TO IT COMPLETELY.”
Kumaar Bagrodia

“What we’re doing is switching rapidly between them, going back and forth in split seconds every time we switch, simply crowding our brain with multiple opened tabs,” says Bagrodia. “This is when we are trying to perform tasks concurrently, which typically leads to repeatedly switching between them or leaving one task unfinished in order to do another,” adds Pillay. The problem is, a computer can switch very, very quickly from one programme to another, the human brain, not so much. It takes our mind some time to really quit something.

A study published in 2003 in the International Journal of Information Management revealed that an average person typically takes 64 seconds to return to what they were doing before they were interrupted by an email. It also found that a typical employee checks their email once every five minutes. By that theory, that’s a whole minute lost every six minutes, simply by switching.

The multitasking bug

We multitask for various reasons—the stress of time constraints, procrastination, boredom, the feeling of being stuck and so on. But it’s not always as bad if you were to build an ideal scenario. According to Pillay, multitasking can sometimes allow one to feel refreshed. The ‘science’ behind each of these motivations is different. He explains that pressure or work overload involves over-activation of the anxiety circuitry in the brain (that drives more frenetic activity), boredom involves prefrontal cortex depletion (that drives engagement by switching tasks; being stuck may be due to the default mode network in the brain not being engaged (driving less focus and switching on the DMN); being tired of one task may be due to active memory overload (driving a booster break that restores this); and making connections across disciplines is motivated by the need to innovate and activating the frontopolar cortex in the brain (driving analogical thinking to become more creative) Unfortunately, the ideal world can most often feel like fiction.

How the brain reacts

Reality check: While multitasking challenges the brain to switch modes all of the time, it’s interesting to note that people who are most capable of multitasking ‘effectively’ are not the ones most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. And, we consistently overestimate how good we are at it—most often, we engage in multitasking because we are less able to block out distractions and focus on a single task.

According to Pillay, multitasking can be counterproductive because it overloads the brain’s attentional networks and worsens memory difficulties and impulsivity. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that heavy media multitaskers show differences in cognition (like poorer memory), psychosocial behaviour (increased impulsivity), and neural structure (reduced volume in the anterior cingulate cortex). Furthermore, research indicates that multitasking with media during learning (in class or at home) can negatively affect academic outcomes.

Multitasking can be counterproductive because it overloads the brain’s attentional networks. Image: Getty

How not to multitask

Monotask. “Monotasking is all about doing one thing with your full attention, doing it well, finishing it, then moving on to your next task with your full attention,” says Thatcher Wine, author of The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time to Do Everything Better. To do this, he suggests building monotasking muscles by doing something every day that strengthens your ability to pay attention, like reading a book for 20 minutes a day without distractions or going for a walk without your smartphone and giving attention to your surroundings instead.

Pillay explains that building unfocus periods into your day (5-15 minutes of napping can give you 1-3 hours of clarity) and booster breaks of 15-minutes of physical activity can help re-energise our brain and thus increase focus. He also suggests reframing tasks that seem overwhelming and restructuring what seems unmanageable by compartmentalising, i.e. breaking down tasks by time or into smaller, more manageable sub-tasks.

Timeboxing is another great solution—instead of simply making a checklist, dedicate a block of time on your calendar to a specific task, which includes unfocussed time—and proactively decide how much time you will spend on it and when. This will help you structure your day, avoid overlaps and clear the clutter that is often the cause of delayed productivity. Oh, and take real breaks: do a few stretches, focus on your breathing with your eyes shut and your body comfortable, go for a short walk, come back, realign.

Also, here’s a fun fact: an average reader takes about 3.3 minutes to read 1,000 words. How long did it take you to read this article? Maybe it’s time to shut a few tabs and try again.

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