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Researchers multitasking makes people sick
The report "Multitasking and Effects on Error Processing - Psychophysiological Analysis for the Analysis of Information Processing Processes" of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) came to the conclusion that multitasking harms the work process as well as the health of the workers.
Multitasking - Like an Octopus Not Knowing What Its Many Arms Are Touching (alphaspirit / fotolia.com) People who are supposed to work on more than one task at the same time make more mistakes, and these mistakes are all the more serious the more complex the tasks are.
The brain - a computer?
The term multitasking does not come from psychology, but from computer technology. It refers to hardware in which different processes are activated in such short intervals that the impression of simultaneity arises. But the human brain is a calculator and can work just like that?
A key qualification
Today, multitasking is considered a key skill and companies educate their employees to learn it. Particularly in the increasingly important areas of communication and information technology, such as online media, multitasking appears to be the central capability.
Main source of error
However, this "central capability" is the main source of error in companies according to a BAuA study. The Federal Institute investigated whether the brain can simultaneously process two processes that require concentration, and if so, whether this is at all advantageous.
The study
The BAuA examined error detection and processing processes in multitasking.
The result disillusioned: Instead of processing two processes at the same time, we interrupt the respective course of thought. After each of these disturbances, we usually take 15 to 20 minutes to fully concentrate on a task.
overload
Employees who are constantly multitasking, feel chronically overwhelmed and are objective. They suffer from stress and are in danger of burnout and in the end there is often a depressive illness.
inefficiency
The psychological damage for people who are permanently under multitasking compulsion are even only one side of the coin. Overload is not just the price they pay for efficient work - on the contrary. The quality of work decreases rapidly. If you want to master several challenging tasks at the same time, you do not do more, you do less.
The brain works differently
Now exposing employees to additional pressure according to the motto "they would not be suitable for the job" is distorting the biological possibilities. A study by the University of Linköping in Sweden showed that the brain always concentrates on the task it considers to be the priority.
The illusion of efficient multitasking
In concrete terms, this means that if I am to explain to my boss a new project and at the same time have to answer professional mails, I either concentrate on one or the other.
Multitasking or elegant ignorance?
The ability for multitasking turns out to be an in-ear listening ability: the concerned customer may be reassured when we make a power point talk and appease him on the phone at the same time, without listening to what he says - the problem However, nothing matters because the customer is concerned because we do not focus on what it is about.
The Swedish study found that the most effective method is to work through complex tasks one after the other.
Bulimia learning
Students completing their duties in the Bachelor's and Master's degree programs and facing much wider restrictions than in the previous Master's degree course complain of "Bulemic learning".
They describe so vividly that they only consume "knowledge" to choke it during exams and then forget it. In the end, while they show a considerable number of credit points on various topics, but have none of them deeply edited, let alone understood.
The same is true at school. Permanent multitasking leads to more headaches in students.
Where does multitasking work??
Psychologists are nonetheless convinced that there are people who are capable of multitasking and others who can not. In particular, women are considered to be gifted for multitasking as men. But that's not true. Rather, multitasking means equal stress in men and women
However, it is important to observe exactly what multitasking means in the respective context: it is not decisive for the brain whether different tasks belong together objectively, but whether it can build up actionable patterns.
For example, a German engineer building a project in the US could probably switch from his online business English course to calculating a building structure on-site without much difficulty - because the language serves this work. In an online course on art history, he would have to interrupt a process of thought.
Distribute clear tasks
The amount of information in the digital age can not be changed, but the organization in companies has to deal with it. This includes having employees perform clear tasks and knowing what others are doing.
Technocratic illusion
Multitasking does not come by chance from computer technology. Transferring it to people results from a technocratic image of man in which employees function like machines - today like computers. But the human brain is not a hardware in which different processes can run in the shortest possible time at the touch of a button: the synapses transmit information with information, and when these lines are interrupted, they have to reform again.
Restrict interference
Multitasking makes you sick and worsens the quality of your work. Inquiries by e-mail and calls as well as unscheduled tasks are not always avoidable, but should be seen as what they are neuropsychological: disorders that bring the brain out of rhythm. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)