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From: Junaid Tahir <mjunaidtahir@gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 11:00:28 AM GMT+0400
Subject: [HM:255651] The Truth About Multitasking: How Your Brain Processes Information
It's the gospel of productivity in a maxed-out world: Multitasking helps
you get more done faster.
"When you perform multiple tasks that each require some of the same
channels of processing, conflicts will arise between the tasks, and you're
going to have to pick and choose which task you're going to focus on and
devote a channel of processing to it," he explains.
Meyer has been at the forefront of research for several decades on how the
brain processes information and copes with multitasking. He has
investigated the brain's speed, accuracy and memory in information
processing while working with psychologist David Kieras for the Office of
Naval Research. A study Meyer co-wrote on the limitations of multitasking
("Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching") went viral
in 2001, setting off the first awareness of the counterproductivity of
simultaneous activities.
Meyer's work has helped demonstrate that humans have distinct bandwidth
challenges, which can make multitasking problematic. It turns out the
brain's ability to process information is limited in a variety of ways --
from processing channels to limits on data volume, velocity and working
memory -- that confound true, simultaneous task actions.
Counter to common belief, you can't do two cognitively complicated tasks at
once, Meyer says. When you're on the phone and writing an e-mail at the
same time, you're actually switching back and forth between them, since
there's only one mental and neural channel through which language flows.
"If you have a complicated task, it requires all your attention, and if
you're trying to spread your attention over multiple tasks, it's not going
to work," he says.
That's heresy in a time-urgent world with the attention span of a macaque
on crack. Meyer admits that multitasking is not only getting more
prevalent, but it's also "very often highly inefficient and can be
dangerous to your health." Even the most adept multitasker will "crash and
burn" trying to resolve simultaneous conflicting demands, Meyer says. That
means you could wind up sending the wrong e-mail; blow an account; have a
"brownout," in which too much access to the cerebral grid shuts down
critical thinking; or worse, find yourself in a truly hazardous situation,
such as driving while using a cell phone.
"When you're driving, you have to use the language channel to talk, read
signs, plan your next move. If you're trying to have a cell phone
conversation while you're doing that, either the phone conversation will
suffer or the driving," Meyer says.
He points to the growing number of auto accidents caused by businesspeople
sending work texts from behind the wheel. The conflicts triggered by
incessant multitasking can set off chronic stress and slow you down,
shredding productivity. In fact, trying to complete two or more tasks at
once can take 50 percent more time or longer, depending on the complexity
of the tasks, Meyer says.
The good news is that there is hope for the attention-span-challenged, in
the form of self-regulation through better time management and scheduling. "If
you're disciplined enough, you can map out the usage of your time in a way
that minimizes your exposure to interruptions," Meyer explains.
Entrepreneurs are some of the most compulsive multitaskers--"macho master
multitaskers," as Meyer puts it -- but he says you'd be wise to cool the
scatterbrain jets and focus.
"If you want to be a creative entrepreneur, you ought to be setting aside
large chunks of time where you just think," he says. "Einstein was not
multitasking when he was dreaming up the special and general theories of
relativity."
Read more stories about:
Productivity<http://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/productivity>,
Multitasking <http://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/multitasking>, Thought
Leaders <http://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/thought-leaders>
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224943
*M Junaid Tahir*
Read my Blog : http://paradigmwisdom.blogspot.com/
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