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Multi-Tasking: Are You Really Getting a Lot Done?
Islam Online, Washington D.C.
14/11/2000
There never seems to be enough time. Enough time to finish tasks on the job. Enough time to spend with the family. Enough time to spend with friends. Enough time for oneself. There just never seems to be enough time.
Rather than re-examining how we spend our time and trying to prioritize, many of us have undertaken the art of multi-tasking. You know, reading e-mail while eating a bowl of cereal and listening to the morning news. Or talking on the cell phone while driving and attempting to find the location of a particular store or office. But are we really being efficient or effective in trying to do so many things at the same time?
What Is Multi-Tasking?
While most mothers have been multi-tasking since the dawn of time, only recently have researchers given attention to the subjective experience of a person who is trying to multi-task. Doing many things that are related, like listening to an address over the telephone and writing it down, is not too stressful. Nor is it really multi-tasking. On the other hand, for the purposes of this article, we are looking at multi-tasking as doing two or more things that are not only distinct but also difficult.
How Does the Brain Respond?
I have tried multi-tasking. And one phenomenon that repeated itself over and over again was that, as I increased the number of things that I was doing at the same time, there was always one thing that I totally forgot I was even doing. But the explanation is not just that I forgot because there were so many things. No. I totally forgot that one thing I was doing among many others because my brain totally erased that activity from my memory.
You may recall trying to do many things while you cooked or ironed, and if that was the first activity you started, you either left the pot on the stove or burned the food or you left the iron on a shirt and added an iron-shaped burn mark to it. When this happens, how is the brain actually responding?
Believe it or not, there is actually a multi-tasking part of the brain. The anterior prefrontal cortex allows you and I to accomplish higher-level tasks like planning, reasoning, analyzing and even calculating. In addition, it allows us to store tasks currently being performed, to add on new tasks, and to switch between tasks.
Consider This Scenario
I start off with activity #1. A few moments later, I add activity #2, placing #1 on hold. In reality, I am not doing activity #1 and #2 at the same time. My mind is switching at high speeds between #1 and #2. Then, as I add activity #3, my mind stores #1 and #2 in memory. For sure, #2 will be put on hold, but all three tasks are in my memory. Depending on the level of stress associated with each activity (due to their importance – whether or not major decisions are involved in the activity – or to time constraints), two other parts of the brain enter the scene.
The amygdala (in lay terms, known to influence aggression and fear) and the striatum (the habit-driven part of the brain) become active because of the level of stress associated with the various activities. As more and more information from each distinct activity enters the brain, we ultimately suffer from information overload. Too much is happening. The brain reacts by increasing production to the point of being flooded by chemicals such as norepinephrine and dopamine.
Sure enough, the high levels of these chemicals block off information transfer to the prefrontal cortex. As you may recall, the anterior prefrontal cortex allows reasoning and planning. Without the necessary information to manage the various activities being switched back and forth from, there is a greater chance that activity #1 will be completely erased from the working memory. Moreover, the amygdala and the striatum become active players, and we regress to a habitual response to these different activities rather than a thought-out, planned response.
Considering Multi-Tasking?
It is not impossible to engage in multi-tasking. Among the suggested ways to make sure we get everything done that we set out to do is to make a to-do list, prioritizing the activities from most to least important. In this way, despite the chemical flood in our brains that could cause one of the activities to be erased and the resulting stress that we may experience, we can always refer back to the written list - checking off what has been accomplished and what is still incomplete.
The brain is a powerful tool. However, in trying to do several distinctly different and difficult activities all at the same time, we must remember that there are limits. So, before your working memory experiences an overload, do remember to make a detailed list of things to do and make sure that you keep the list handy. Many of us have become stressed out or stranded because we misplaced the very to-do list that was supposed to help us!
Editor’s Note: If you are stressed and overwhelmed from having too much to do in too little time, seek some advice from Cyber Counselor.
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