Multitasking...Think You're Getting More Done By Doing Multiple Things? Might Be Time to Think About That!

Several recently published reports show that there are certainly limits to the quality of multitasking. According to the neuroscientists, management professors and psychologists, the studies suggest that many of us would do better if we stopped or at least slowed our multitasking behavior when working, studying or driving.

Some basic advice we might all consider:

• Check e-mail messages once an hour, at most.
• Try listening to soothing background music while studying and working--it may improve concentration. However, songs with lyrics, instant messaging, TV and movies often hamper performance.
• Driving while talking on a cellphone, even with a hands-free headset—another bad idea.

According to a recent New York Times interview, David E. Meyer, a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan said that “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes.” “Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”

And, according to the same article, René Marois, a neuroscientist and director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbilt University commented that, even though the human brain is quite complex, “a core limitation is an inability to concentrate on two things at once.”

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