9 Reasons Why Multitasking May Be Changing Our Brains For The Worse And Killing Productivity

It was Albert Einstein that once said, ¡°Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.¡±

This iconic quote is indicative of our work culture, which relies primarily on focusing on multiple tasks instead of the task at hand. What's strange is the fact that it¡¯s hard to find any semblance of the word the ¡®multitask¡¯ before it was first seen in an IBM paper 1965 used to describe the capabilities of the IBM System/360.

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Today¡¯s business leaders look at employees that can multitask better than the next more equipped to handle the complexity of tasks demanded of them today.

In a sense, our generation lives by the perception that millennials are the perfect breed that is equipped to juggle multiple tasks at once.

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While millennials (people in the age group of around 18-34), are celebrated for their ability to use all forms of technology and shift meticulously from one task to the next simultaneously, growing bodies of research suggest that our brain can¡¯t perform more than two or more tasks efficiently; especially if you¡¯re trying to learn something new.

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A Stanford university professor in an interview with Woman¡¯s Health states that there is a copious amount of evidence that shows the brain does better when performing tasks in sequence, rather than simultaneously.

Here¡¯s what studies reveal about the act of multitasking on productivity:

1. People who multitask have poorer attention spans

Stanford University published in 2009 published that people who multitask have poorer attention spans, and worse off at completing tests on spatial perception and memory. The researchers suggested that it was because they couldn¡¯t let their mind from drifting to tasks that they weren¡¯t performing.

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2. The time we waste juggling between tasks can be used much more productively

We fiddle with our phones around 2,617 according to the study conducted by the research group Dscout. This meant that the participants in the study were spending anywhere between two and a half hours to four hours on the phone, which could have been spent on getting something else concretely done.

3. Multitasking affected our ability to study

It comes as no surprise then A 2015 study from Iowa State University found that students who spend more time on social media were at a higher risk of scoring a lower GPA; moreover because of the fact that they had a problem of self-regulation.

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4. Multitaskers have smaller volumes of grey matter

People who multitasked have smaller volumes of grey matter in their Anterior Cingulate Cortex; the part that is associated with your memory and decision-making. The structural change is likely due to the rapid cognitive change the brain has to keep up with, states a 2014 study published in the journal PLOS ONE.

5. Multitasking negatively impacts the part of the brain that controls emotions

Constantly jumping from one task to the other causes a cognitive overload on the brain due to a higher level of stress on it. A 2014 study at the University of Sussex found that people who multitasked regularly suffered from a lower brain density the portion that controls emotion.

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6. Multitasking reduces productivity by up to 40%

While you may find switching from one task to the next commendable, your brain doesn¡¯t find anything admirable about it. In fact, studies, such as one published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology revealed that multitasking reduced your productivity by 40%. That means it would take you more time to complete a project than it would otherwise, which defeats the purpose of multitasking in the first place.

7.Multitasking can reduce your ability to learn

Multitasking reduces your intelligence by affecting your ability to differentiate between what is important and what isn¡¯t. A study published in the University of London found that multitasking lowered your IQ as much as it would if you had used marijuana or stayed up all night.

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8. Multitasking affects your ability to remember things in continuum

It also affects your ability to remember things making it difficult to make connections between the things we do. Studies, such as one published in Computers in Human Behaviour, reveals that multitasking affects your ability to remember what you were doing before, making it harder to put what you learnt previously into a new context.

9. Multitasking has heavy financial ramifications on a global level

In the U.S. alone job-hopping by millennials cost more than $30 million per year. Globally a lack of productivity accounts to staggering $450 dollars every year!

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Since multi-tasking is deep-seeded in our work culture, a better way of dealing with multiple tasks would be to perform them one after the other, as mentioned before. Successfully shifting your attention from one task to the other demonstrates the agility of your brain. The only catch is that you cannot think about another task apart from the one you are currently working on states Paul Hammerness and Margaret Moore, authors of the book ¡®Organise your mind, organise your life¡¯, as quoted by in the Business Insider.