You’re Not Multitasking, Your Switching Between Tasks. And It Doesn’t Work

This is a good and (mercifully) brief article on the not-so-obvious truth about multitasking. We often do it because we think we are getting more done. The truth is the opposite. When we try to focus on more than one thing at a time, we end up gettting less done, it takes longer, and the work is generally of a lower quality. This article includes some good suggestions and links to research.

“What does it even mean anyway: multitasking?

“The actual term ‘multitasking’ is misleading because we might think we’re doing more than one thing at once, but that’s not what our brain is actually doing.

“What essentially happens when we switch between tasks is just that – we switch between tasks.

“Our brain is easily distracted and jumps from task to task, taking longer to complete all tasks simultaneously than it would if it attacked them one by one.”