Two Multitasking Myths You Should Stop Believing.

MMultitasking is an interesting one. It’s a bit like drink-driving. We all know we shouldn’t do it, yet we have a tendency to proudly broadcast to others how concerns about efficiency (or, in the case of drink-driving, safety) only apply to those who are less practised.

Even though beer-powered drivers like to insist alcohol doesn’t affect their performance, statistics are pretty powerful at showing us how wrong they are (see the Ministry of Justice Statistics for some data).

In contrast, people tend to have a less clear idea of the actual efficiency of multitasking. Many believe that they are better off multitasking rather than performing each task separately. Similarly, it is a commonly held belief that women are significantly better than men at performing several tasks at the same time.

Spoiler Alert: In this article, I will aim to debunk both these myths by bringing you some scientific evidence and focusing on these topics:

1. Is multitasking more efficient?
2. Are women better at multitasking?
3. Conclusion and challenge

1. Is multitasking more efficient?

First, let’s all get on the same page about the definition of multitasking. Multitasking is the act of performing multiple independent tasks within a short timeframe, requiring a rapid and frequent switch of attention from one task to another (Hirsch et al., 2019).

Multitasking can easily sneak into your routine without you even noticing. That is because certain tasks, when performed regularly enough, tend to become automatic and we stop to think about them as responsibilities requiring our full attention. The classic example of this is driving. As you might recall from your first times behind the wheel, driving safely while having a conversation seemed impossible. Yet, after enough practice, you found that you were able to have meaningful conversations with your passengers and, eventually, you even started answering phone calls.

We like to believe that our efficiency will not be affected if we have a chat while driving or check our email while on a call; nevertheless, psychologists are unanimous on this matter: multitasking takes a toll on productivity (Gopher, 2019).

We are actually incapable of concentrating on more than one task at the same time; rather, we rapidly pivot between them. When the tasks we are performing are simple or familiar, such as stirring a soup and speaking on the phone, we are able to switch between them quickly, sometimes taking as little as a few tenths of a second (Meyer, 2007).

However, if the activities we are carrying out are complex or unfamiliar, such as listening to your boss’s brief and reading an instant message, the switching time between them significantly increases. Clearly, the more you redirect your attention back and forth between tasks, the more time you end up wasting to switching costs. Overall, multitasking can cut productivity by a shocking 40% (Meyer, 2007).

In a nutshell, multitasking tends to be less efficient than performing each task individually. However, not all multitasking is the same, as we often perform tasks that do not constantly require our fullest attention. For instance, if you throw in a load of laundry while talking to a friend or make a coffee while listening in on a work call with 20 people, you are probably going to be fine. The key here is to avoid the type of multitasking that requires you to rapidly and frequently switch your attention between tasks.

2. Are women better at multitasking?

One of the most prevalent myths about multitasking is that women outperform men in their ability to switch between tasks. In a series of studies, Szameitat et al. (2015) found that 80% of those who believe there is a gender difference in multitasking say that women are better at it than men.

There is plenty of media and press coverage about women’s supposed superiority at multitasking, but little scientific evidence to back this up. In fact, even if there are a couple of studies suggesting a female superiority in multitasking (Ren et al., 2009), the vast majority of research looking at gender differences leads to the same conclusion: we are all equally bad at it (Burgess et al., 2018).

Personally, the question I find more interesting is how this belief has come to be so widely accepted despite the lack of evidence. According to some, this myth may be one of those “just-so” evolutionary theories where, because of extensive practice managing children and households, women have developed a superior ability to multitask.

Similarly, Earl K. Miller (2016), a professor of neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argues that this stereotype could be due to the perception that there is more of a need for women to do multiple things at once or, as he put it: “It’s probably due to the fact that women typically have more demand on them”.

While some women may be upset to lose their status as multitasking superstars, debunking myths portraying women as superheroes is actually a good thing — the fact that women are seen as excellent at juggling multiple priorities at once, does not make it right or fair for them to be expected to do so.

3. Conclusion and challenge

I recognise that I’ve definitely come across as a bit of a wet blanket and I’m sure that some of you were not happy to see multitasking lose its status or to see women lose their status as masters of multitasking. After all, we all do it on a daily basis, and it’s become an integral part of our routines.

Sometimes, even when knowing that multitasking is bad for productivity, I must confess that I still fall in the trap. However, let me share some tips that have helped me reduce multitasking as much possible:

• When busy working on a complex task, try muting notifications both from personal devices and from email/chat on work devices. This really helps to avoid jumping back and forth every time a notification pops in.
• Time allocation is another precious one. When you have a lot of different priorities and deadlines and are likely to feel overwhelmed and have too many things open at once, try blocking some time in your calendar to work on each project/priority separately.

Reducing multitasking takes time and patience, especially when it’s become a routine. My challenge for you is to start by noticing when you are multitasking. Next time you realise you are switching back and forth between tasks, take note of it and make the conscious decision to focus fully on one before moving onto the next. It’s a slow journey, but think about what you could do with that extra 40% of time!

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References

American Psychological Association (2016). Multitasking: Switching costs. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/research/action/multitask

Burgess, P.W., et al. (2018). “No Sex Difference in an Everyday Multitasking Paradigm.” Psychological Research, 83, 286–296.

Gopher, D., Armony, L. & Greenspan, Y. (2019). Switching tasks and attention policies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 308–229.

Hirsch P, Koch I, Karbach J (2019) Putting a stereotype to the test: The case of gender differences in multitasking costs in task-switching and dual-task situations. PLoS ONE 14(8): e0220150. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220150

Meyer, D. E. (2007). A computational theory of executive cognitive processes and multiple-task performance. Psychological Review, 104, 3–65.

Miller, E. (2016). “Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Multitask, According to a MIT Neuroscientist.” Fortune, Fortune, 9 Dec. 2016, fortune.com/2016/12/07/why-you-shouldnt-multitask/.

Ren, D., Zhou, H., & Fu, X. A. (2009). Deeper look at gender difference in multitasking: gender-specific mechanism of cognitive control. In Proceedings of the 5th international conference on natural computation, Tianjin, China (Vol. 5, pp. 13–17). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICNC.2009.542.

Szameitat, A. J., Hamaida, Y., Tulley, R. S., Saylik, R., & Otermans, P. C. J. (2015). “Women are better than men” — Public beliefs on gender differences and other aspects in multitasking. PLoS ONE, 10(10), e0140371. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140371.

United Kingdom Government. Ministry of Justice (2019). Driving and Transport. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/statistics