The illusion of efficient multitasking

Multitasking affects the quality of work and causes stress

04/29/2013

At first glance, multitasking seems to be an enormous gain in efficiency for those who master it. You can do multiple tasks at the same time, saving you time. However, the president of the Association of German Plant and Factory Physicians (VDBW), Wolfgang Panter, warns against the news agency „dpa“, that this causes significant stress in the brain. Instead of gaining efficiency, the multitasking users would tire more quickly and make more mistakes. The parallel processing of several tasks should therefore be better avoided, explained the expert.

Many people used multitasking at work more or less successfully to work off the daily mountain of tasks more efficiently. During the call, emails are still being read quickly, important information is researched on various websites on the Internet or texts are edited on the PC. Although modern information and communication technologies have significantly expanded the possibilities of multitasking, the stress in the brain remains the same. The parallel processing of several tasks is in the end less efficient than the processing in sequence, as well as the findings of a research team around Professor Clifford Nass of Stanford University. For years, Nass and colleagues have been exploring the consequences and perceived benefits of multitasking.

Multitasking calls for a high mental price
Although people use multitasking daily, social researchers have always pointed this out, „that it is impossible to process more than one series of information at a time. The brain just can not do this“, Wet and colleagues founded their research in 2009. Many scientists have been of the opinion, „that people who seem to be multitasking need to have excellent control over what they think and what they are aware of“, so the then announcement from Stanford University. However, the subsequent studies by Prof. Nass and colleagues have shown that multitaskers have a „pay high mental price“ and in both the recording of information, as well as in their classification and the memory, significantly worse sections than subjects who perform their tasks in sequence.

Information processing suffers from multitasking
Professor Clifford Nass explained that multitaskers - despite their practice of simultaneously handling multiple tasks - constantly have to switch back and forth in the brain, creating significant difficulties in classifying the relevance of the information. The multitaskers are veritable „Suction cups for irrelevance, "said Prof. Nass," they are distracted from everything. "Weighting the information is much harder for them than other people, and they have more difficulty remembering the important information The state of affairs of the association of German plant and factory physicians, Wolfgang Panter, in his current press release comes to a similar negative assessment of multitasking.

Doing tasks in turn
Ultimately, multitasking causes users to tire more quickly and make mistakes more easily, according to the VDBW president. Here we urgently advise against multitasking and instead recommend working through the tasks one after the other. If in doubt, the creation of a ranking list or priority list can help. Although occasional interruptions caused by a call or a new email in the inbox can hardly be avoided in today's world of work, the expert recommends to stick roughly to the priority list. In order to avoid disruptive interruptions as much as possible, clear agreements in the office are an advantage. In this way, at least the interruptions by colleagues in important tasks can be largely avoided. Also, help to go offline for 30 to 60 minutes every day to work in a concentrated way during this time. Particularly important tasks could be completed so quickly. At the same time, the parallel handling of many tasks should also help those people who master my multitasking better. Ultimately, not only the quality of their work, but also their psyche suffers. (Fp)

Also read:
Multitasking: equal stress for men & women

Image: Benjamin Thorn