I read an article this weekend by Katherine Reynolds Lewis entitled "We're simply not wired for multi-tasking." Her argument was that our brains are not set up to process most efficiently when they try to do more than one thing at a time. She writes,
"The brain acts on just one task at a time. What we perceive as simultaneous multi-tasking is really rapid switching back and forth to keep different tasks going – even if one is as simple as deciding to lift the sandwich for another bite." Michael St. Pierre wrote on multi-tasking on this blog a few days ago and mothers commented that as mothers, they had no choice but to multi-task. I'm inclined to agree. I know that my two children are often asking for two different things at the same time. Also, I need to fit in daily chores in and around parenting duty.
I think that the choice to multi-task or not to multi-task depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Even Lewis contends that there are some tasks that are so habitual that we can do them and something else at the same time – for example, we can eat and have a conversation. We can work while the radio is on. We can fold laundry or empty the dishwasher while still paying attention to a child. You can read a book while on hold on the phone. I can pedal my exercise bike and look at a magazine.
It is when we are trying to use the same set of brainwaves to accomplish two different things that we run into problems. For example, talking on the phone and trying to write an article doesn't work all that well. Toggling between writing a document in a word processing program and inputting numbers in a spreadsheet will probably reduce the quality of both.
So, then, it becomes a choice. One needs to evaluate the tasks at hand and decide whether this is a time to multi-task or a time to concentrate on the one thing that you are doing and then move on to something else, thereby giving them both the attention that they deserve.
