Multitasking is the mind killer §

Created: 2022-04-10 20:30

Studies show that multitasking leads to less productivity and lower quality of outcome compared to those that carry out a single activity at a time (Wang and Tchernev 2012; Rosen 2008; Ophir, Nass and Wagner 2009).

Our brains aren’t designed for multitasking. It drains brain fuel faster than anything else. That is because we aren’t able to actually multitask, meaning that to do several things at once we quickly switch context between multiple things. And context switching is very taxing for the brain.

[…] confuse familiarity with skill

The fact that we multitask often, specially due to the nature of technology focused work (ie. working with a computer and the internet at hand), doesn’t mean we are good at multitasking nor that it makes us more productive. We are fooled by the mere-exposure effect into thinking that because we do something often then we become good at it, when we are merely familiar with it (Bernstein 1989).