Multitasking at Work: You Can’t Do Many Things at Once

In the situation described above, the pride in multitasking comes mainly from the fact that during work we managed to use the mobile to do online shopping. During this time, our professional duties did not suffer. At least that’s what we think.

There was real success in our mind – this juggling of tasks, on the one hand, overwhelmed us because we had more things to do. On the other hand, there is also a sense of satisfaction that you managed to do several things at once.

A thought appears in the head: “But I am effective and resourceful!”

Unfortunately you are not…

By multitasking at work, our effectiveness can drop by 40%

After more than 50 years of research on cognition and multitasking, we know for sure that multitaskers not only do less but also miss out on key information.

It turns out that we need time (an average of 15 minutes ) to refocus on a basic task when we are distracted by something – for example, an incoming email or a message on social media.

Our efficiency may drop by up to … 40% during this time .

Multitasking at Work: Memory and Creativity Killer

Our long-term memory also suffers from multitasking. Creativity — the ability to hold multiple, loosely connected associations in mind — also declines during this time.

So it turns out that our brains, which contain billions of neurons, are not capable of doing many things at once. At least not in the sense we imagine.

Instead of doing things simultaneously, our brain switches tasks. It chooses which information to process at a given moment.

For example, if you are talking to someone, the part of your brain responsible for seeing becomes less active. In the event that you are talking to a customer on the phone and working on a computer at the same time, you literally hear less of what the process Phone Number List willcustomer is saying as a result.

What ONE thing is most important to you today?