What was your dream superpower as a child? Becoming invisible? Being able to fly? Maybe telekinesis? Many magical skills remain exciting even for adults, but the most desirable superpower for grown-ups is the ability to do several things simultaneously. The demand for multitasking is due to the constantly accelerating pace of life. While some people see multitasking as a superpower, others believe it makes us less productive.
In this article, we’ll look deeper at one of the most controversial 21st-century skills and find out how to reap all the benefits it has to offer. Don’t miss our free database of essays, where you can find lots of helpful materials on sciences, business, art, law, and many other topics.
🤹 What Is Multitasking?
Multitasking is the practice of performing more than one activity simultaneously. This process involves shifting your attention from one task to another or performing two or more actions at the same time. Sometimes multitasking can be counter-productive because some jobs require all your attention to avoid making mistakes. However, studies have shown that there are ways people can improve their multitasking skills.
Initially, the concept of multitasking came from computer technologies. In an operating system, multitasking allows a user to run more than one application at the same time.
Here are some multitasking examples in various areas of life:
- Taking notes while listening to a lecture.
- Driving a car while talking with passengers.
- Monitoring social media while watching a movie.
- Taking several restaurant orders at once.
- Reading a book while eating lunch.
- Cooking multiple dishes at once.
What Multitasking Is Not:
Most disputes on multitasking arise when people confuse it with a task-switching process. Task switching involves shifting your attention from one thing to another, while multitasking is about doing things simultaneously.
Multitasking ≠ Task-Switching
Imagine constantly checking your social media accounts while writing an essay. This process is often incorrectly referred to as multitasking, but this is actually an example of task switching. In this case, you don’t do the two activities simultaneously. Instead, you bounce back and forth between writing and scrolling through social media, just like a ping-pong ball. Your Instagram feed gets your attention for a few minutes, and then you focus on your essay. When you switch tasks like this, you aren’t fully engaged in any of them.
Multitasking Misconceptions
Various myths surround the concept of multitasking, and they may be ruining your productivity. Let’s debunk the most common ones:
⚖️ Effects of Multitasking on Learning
Often, students see multitasking as a key to thriving in high school or college. Indeed, multitasking might be a helpful solution, especially for those who combine studying and working. The positive effects of multitasking include saving time, reducing procrastination, and increasing brain power.
At the same time, students who tend to multitask are also at risk of facing specific challenges. In 2020, an experiment conducted by Stanford revealed that multitaskers have more trouble organizing their ideas and filtering out irrelevant information.
Negative Effects of Multitasking
Excessive and uncontrolled multitasking might negatively influence not only your academic performance but also your mental health. Please be aware of these common adverse effects:
- Multitasking can increase your academic anxiety.
If you have ever felt worried or stressed over exams or assignments, you might have experienced academic anxiety. Multitasking might worsen your fear since it requires your brain to concentrate on more than one stressful task. Moreover, multitasking often increases the chances of mistakes, contributing to higher anxiety levels. - Multitasking may affect your academic performance.
Often, multitasking leads to frustration due to tasks that remain incomplete. Imagine writing an essay for your literature class and making a marketing presentation at the same time. At some point, you may feel too tired to continue and decide to give up on one of the tasks or sacrifice the quality of your work. Moreover, multitasking can take away your creative ability to think outside the box. - Multitasking might ruin your relationship with close friends or loved ones.
Have you ever spoken on the phone with a friend or a parent while doing your homework? This seemingly harmless example of multitasking may interfere with your ability to connect to others. Whenever another human being is involved in your multitasking, you make them feel less important than your academic tasks. - Multitasking reduces focus.
The more you practice multitasking while studying, the harder it gets to focus on one task. For example, if you’re used to doing your homework with friends or writing a research paper while scrolling the web, you might get anxious during an individual test or exam. In other words, constant multitasking can make it harder for your brain to stay focused. - Multitasking may cause memory problems.
A study at the University of California revealed that multitasking could negatively affect memory in young and older adults. Consider this example: If many applications are left open on your laptop, your computer’s processing system will slow down. If you keep multitasking uncontrollably at college, you risk forgetting about specific deadlines and memorizing the material at a slower rate.
Positive Effects of Multitasking
However,
Multitasking is not an inherently harmful practice. In fact, it offers many benefits for students in high school and college. Have a look at the positive effects of mindful multitasking:
- Multitasking can maximize your time.
Multitasking can definitely add value to how you spend your time. A common practice among students is doing homework together with a friend. This is a solid example of achieving academic goals and nurturing relationships. As long as you choose tasks that don’t conflict with each other, multitasking can maximize your time. - Multitasking helps you juggle your studies, work, and personal life.
Many students start their first side jobs while studying in high school and college. This experience profoundly impacts their personal growth but might cause some challenges with their studies. Multitasking can be a positive solution for those young people who want to make the most out of different areas of their lives. - Multitasking can prevent procrastination.
With the help of multitasking, you can achieve more on your to-do list in less time. Crossing more tasks off your list is a strong motivator that keeps you working. Completing more than one assignment at once will keep you active, help avoid distractions, and give you a greater sense of achievement. - Multitasking challenges your brain power.
Our brain needs exercise, just like our body. Multitasking is one of the tools to keep your brain active and help you develop mental stamina. If you start practicing multitasking as a freshman, your brain will become more efficient at handling assignments and exams later on. - Multitasking allows for steady academic progress.
Multitasking doesn’t guarantee immediate academic progress. Often, when you do more than one assignment at once, it might take longer. However, multitasking teaches you discipline and affords a slower rate of progress. This can help you stay on track with your studies and avoid burnout.
🔎 How to Multitask Properly? – BEST TIPS
As you can see, there are certain risks associated with multitasking. However, you can minimize them in practice if you carefully choose which activities to combine and approach them mindfully. If you want to master multitasking, consider these helpful tips:
- Don’t mix activities that require a lot of time or effort. Instead, choose lighter tasks that you’ll be able to concentrate on.
- Ensure you have a plan before approaching multitasking. For example, decide which topics you will cover if you want to review your notes during lunch.
- Choose tasks that align with each other. If you want to listen to a podcast while taking a walk, make sure the audio isn’t too long and fits comfortably within your spare time.
- Ensure your tasks are handy. If you plan to take notes while in an online lecture, remember to keep your notebook, pen, and other things you’ll need close by.
- Reflect on your previous multitasking experiences. If you want to use your time efficiently, it’s essential to track your progress with multitasking and notice which strategies work best for you.
Multitasking: When to Do It, When (and How) to Avoid It
🤖 Effective Multitasking – Activities to Combine
The secret to effective multitasking lies in choosing activities that you can combine to stimulate your brain. There’s scientific proof that multitasking can increase cognitive performance when you combine two or more unrelated activities. For example, it can be a combination of physical exercise with mental practice or a day-to-day routine with more creative tasks.
When you combine two unrelated activities for multitasking, you improve your cognitive functions, including memory, decision-making, problem-solving, and attention span. All these aspects of our cognition are supported by groups of connected brain cells called neural networks. The more intensively two brain cells communicate with one another, the stronger the connections between them become, boosting your cognitive abilities.
In the next section, we’ll discuss which activities to combine to practice mindful and effective multitasking.
🙅 When NOT to Multitask
It’s important to remember that in some situations, multitasking can add stress and negatively affect motivation and productivity. Some activities require a single-tasking approach and total concentration. Examples of scenarios when it’s better to avoid multitasking include the following:
- The task you’re doing is vital, like taking a final test.
- You feel like you’re getting distracted by multitasking and becoming less productive.
- You don’t have enough energy to approach more than one task at once.
- You are experiencing emotional burnout.
- You struggle with mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, or ADHD.
- One task is more urgent than the other, or you have a burning deadline.
- You’ve experienced problems with concentration before and are used to procrastination.
- You’re practicing a newly acquired skill in which you’re not fully competent.
- Other people are involved in an activity and don’t want to multitask.
- You multitask daily and perceive it as a habit instead of a mindful activity.
- The combination of tasks is dangerous, like checking your phone while driving.
🥷🏽 Multitasking in a Classroom – Hidden Challenges
While multitasking can increase productivity during individual or group work, it might become distracting in a classroom environment.
Many students use their laptops during class to take notes, scroll through their social media feeds, or answer emails. Studies on multitasking in a classroom reveal that students using their laptops scored lower on their tests than those fully engaged. This happens because managing two or more activities simultaneously requires much attention, and attentional resources are not infinite.
Another reason to avoid multitasking in a classroom is that it may affect your relationship with your teacher. Usually, professors appreciate students who actively participate, ask questions, and keep up with the discussion. Taking a break from your phone during class can significantly improve your reputation and ensure you’re on good terms with your teacher.
Read these materials to discover more about the role of technology in the learning process:
- Myths about Online Learning: Issues, Benefits, & Misconceptions
- The Future Is Here: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help You with Your Studies
🎯 5 Tips to Improve Your Focus
The key to effective multitasking is training your concentration. Check out these helpful tips if you often get distracted and want to improve your attention span.
Practice Mindfulness
Often, we approach our daily tasks automatically, not thinking about how and why we do them. Practicing mindfulness means focusing on the present moment and improving your brain functions and attention span. So, next time you have a study session, stay present and reflect on what you’re doing.
225 Mental Health Resources for Students [Free & Affordable]
Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
There is a direct link between exercise, sleep, and your cognitive abilities, especially attention. Staying fit and having enough sleep promote new brain connections, improving the ability to concentrate and resist stress. Even if you don’t have the opportunity to join a gym, consider taking regular walks and preparing healthy meals.
Ways to Eat Healthy When You Are an Extremely Busy Student
Try Brain Training
Many fun ways to increase your brainpower include old-school crossword puzzles, Sudoku games, and modern apps such as Lumosity and CogniFit. These games will push you to a higher level of cognitive performance and progressively improve your concentration.
Take Regular Breaks
When you focus on something for too long, your concentration may begin to wane. For example, when writing an essay for more than two hours, your attention span might begin to suffer. The recommendation here is to take small breaks to refocus your attention elsewhere. When you get back to writing, you will have a more focused mind to keep going.
3 Reasons to Take a Writing Break – 2023 – MasterClass
Set Daily Tasks
Plan what you need to do each day, the night before, or in the morning. This technique will help your brain focus on essential tasks and relieve distracting anxiety. Another tip is to break large tasks into smaller steps to track your progress and keep up your motivation.
🕰️ Other Time Management Techniques
For some people, multitasking doesn’t work, which is normal. The key to being productive is finding the time-management technique that best suits you and your needs. Here are some other strategies that can help you achieve more in less time.
🏁 Conclusion
In conclusion, it’s essential to remember that multitasking has advantages and disadvantages. While it allows you to complete more things at once, it may also reduce your focus and affect your overall performance.
However, by practicing mindful multitasking, you can mitigate these negative effects and reap the benefits of multitasking. Mindful multitasking involves:
- learning when to practice it and when to avoid it;
- choosing the suitable activities to combine;
- knowing which tasks should be approached individually;
- setting clear priorities;
- avoiding distractions.
By implementing these strategies, individuals can multitask effectively and achieve their goals. If multitasking doesn’t work for you, don’t worry. Plenty of other techniques can add value to how you spend your time and help you thrive in every area of your life. After all, productivity comes from balance, mindfulness, and regular practice.
🔗 References
- The Pros and Cons of Multitasking | Indeed.com
- Integrating knowledge of multitasking and interruptions across different perspectives and research methods – UCL Discovery
- Multitasking And Divided Attention – Sciencebeta
- 3 Myths about Productivity and Multitasking
- 7 reasons why you should stop multitasking now | HealthShots
- In Defense Of Multitasking: How To Do It The Right Way
- When Not to Multitask
- 5 Smart Ways to Multitask in College
- Tips to improve concentration – Harvard Health
- 9 Popular Time Management Techniques and Tools | USAHS
- 15+ Most Effective and Proven Time Management Techniques – skills, tips, strategies, tools – TimeCamp
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