As part of my teacher training in Restorative Yoga, with Judith Hanson Lasater, we were given a number of articles that I found really valuable. They were research-based articles relating to the rise of chronic stress, insomnia and disconnection that is becoming a bit of a world-wide phenomena, and sadly sort of becoming the new normal.
There was a short one titled “Multi-tasking Not Smart”, and addressed the common presence of multi-tasking in society, and how it can actually lower your IQ.
I’m never sure quite how to raise it with friends and colleagues who talk about how good they are at multi-tasking like they should be patted on the back and applauded! My initial response in my head is “nooo don’t do that to yourself”!!! But I usually say nothing as I’m still learning how to present ideas in scientific research without being concerned with sounding like a know-all, haha! Oh, and actually remembering statistics and things to back my spiel up!! 🙂
And anyway, science, like everything, is ever-changing, so maybe I’m better off practising quietly!
But I will share here, that way you can follow up on the research yourself if you’re skeptical, or if just reading this doesn’t make some basic sense to you.
For me I do know, that as a way of getting stuff done, I am a CRAP multi-tasker! I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve read some of this research and that’s now in my head so I don’t want to be good at it, or whether I’m genuinely a poor multi-tasker.
As someone whose equilibrium tends to be easily knocked out of balance if not mindful (hello VATA!), I believe that multi-tasking messes with my head and inner-calm. Whilst I know I can do it when I need to, and I actually can look like I’m very good at it if I want to, I try to reserve it for necessity rather than making it part of how I do things.
At work – my desk job – I have to do it as part of my role.
I will admit I can get a bit of a buzz out of it,
as it involves dealing with people too, so there is the performance side to it! But far out, I get completely exhausted by it!! (More Vata imbalance)
I guess that’s why I really enjoy doing meditative things like colouring in colouring books, yoga practice and mindfulness meditation, things that involve using my hands and focusing on one thing at a time, and practising that.
And it can be quite challenging.
Have you ever been driving along or doing something and had the radio on, only to realise after a while that you really do not like what you’re hearing! This happens me sometimes – and I’m like “what is this s h i t I’m listening to”!!!? It’s because I’m doing more than one thing at a time – for some of that time I am not conscious of one (or more) of the things, but they still have an effect on me.
Honest admission #2: sometimes it happens vice versa – I’ve got some brilliant audio book or podcast on and I’m not sure if I’ve just gone through a red light because something I just heard was so bloody profound, all perceived reality to date has just fallen away!
So to counteract this kinda stuff, I try to be a bit more conscious.
How? Well, if I’m going to turn the radio on in the car, I try to do it consciously, not out of habit, and accept that something might have to give along the way! Or, I might go to punch the radio button on, and then stop to ask why? Do I need some company? Am I trying to fill space, or is there something I really want to hear?
What about driving in silence (as if my head would not be like a radio all in itself anyway hahaha!). Well, sometimes I do it. And it’s rather pleasant.
Anyway here is an article from Forbes Magazine, talking about how Multi-Tasking Damages Your Brain. (Warning: It may raise more than one thought in your head at anyone time.)
You’ve likely heard that multitasking is problematic, but new studies show that it kills your performance and may even damage your brain.
Research conducted at Stanford University found that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers also found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.
A Special Skill?
But what if some people have a special gift for multitasking? The Stanford researchers compared groups of people based on their tendency to multitask and their belief that it helps their performance. They found that heavy multitaskers—those who multitask a lot and feel that it boosts their performance—were actually worse at multitasking than those who like to do a single thing at a time. The frequent multitaskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another. Ouch.
Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.
Read the full article here