f you enjoy saving time by doing multiple things at once, then right now you might be the type who watches TV and cleans the house while making dinner. You may think you are the expert at multitasking and accomplishing a lot at once, but you actually end up wasting time. If you are focused on making dinner, odds are you may not remember exactly what happened on the latest episode of your favorite TV show or the national news.
It’s not hard to multitask, we all do it every day. Instead of actually helping you, multitasking works against you, and here’s why.
Ultimately, your brain is not equipped for multitasking tasks that are a learning ability. Your brain simply cannot absorb two separate streams of information. When information doesn’t make it into short-term memory, it is not capable of being transferred into your long-term memory for recollection later. If you can’t recall it, you can’t use it. And whatever you have to do, you want to understand and learn it as best as you can the first time.
Multitasking for the Wrong Reasons
Being particular regarding what we tend to do to prioritize, takes time and energy, and also the results aren’t instantly visible. Prioritizing may be a risk which is why people multitask in the first place. You may not realize it, but multitasking can negatively affect yourself from making progress towards whatever goal you want to achieve. However, in order to get through the day, come up with a plan that not only benefits you, but gets everything you need completed without the hassle of multitasking. if you set a plan for yourself, you will still accomplish everything that needs to get done, without dividing your attention and doing too much at a time.
Divided Attention
If you have the tendency to divide your attention, you may not even realize how it is negatively impacting your ability to perform simple every day tasks. This effects your overall attentiveness and learning ability.
Multitasking can be quite the expense and dangerous if not careful. Those of you who have been guilty of texting and driving, even if it was only pulling up to a stoplight, your risk of an accident is extremely high if your entire attention is focused on your gadgets rather than the road. You would then question if that costly text was worth it or if it could have waited.
Multitasking with technology such as texting, listening to music, checking emails, etc negatively impacts studying, doing homework, learning, and grades. Overall, the more we multitask ,the less we are able to accomplish, because we slowly lose out ability to focus enough to learn. Attention is key to learning.
One Step At A Time
Multitasking not only occurs at your home, but for many, one of the most popular places individuals multitask is the workplace. Next time you attend a meeting at your job, notice the amount of your colleagues who have their laptops open during the meeting. This doesn’t necessarily mean they were not engaged in the discussion but shows they are juggling numerous tasks and not giving their undivided attention to the meeting. Many businesses thought having laptops open in meetings was lowering productivity instead of raising it and numerous have decided for their employees to not bring a laptop to the meeting. This particular multitasking can negatively affecting an individual’s performance in the workplace and not be properly informed on the details said during the discussion.
If this sounds like you, remember if you are in a meeting or filling an order, you undeniably perform best doing one thing at a time, and it is worth a try.
So, instead of watching the news while cooking and dinner and reading this post, try something new in your daily routine. Give yourself some “you” time and the rest of the responsibilities can wait. You deserve to give your brain a rest and you will still get everything done.
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