How Multitasking Works

Those Facebook clicks, email checks and instant messages seem tiny and insignificant, but research has shown that excessive task-switching throughout the workday can rack up as much as a 40 percent loss in productivity [source: Weinschenk]! Such performance failure can quickly cost a company big bucks, not to mention throw an employee's job stability into question.

Productivity loss and potential unemployment aren't the only detrimental side effects to multitasking, however. Multitasking and its step-brother, interruptions, are known to impact safety, particularly in high-risk fields/experiences like aviation, healthcare and driving. The latter, in particular, is frighteningly common, with about 660,000 drivers in the U.S. at any daylight moment using cellphones or other electronic devices while behind the wheel [source: Distraction.gov].

IQ scores also take a hit when people are multitasking, according to a University of London study, in which some male participants experienced an IQ dip of 15 points while multitasking during cognitive skills tests. That's equivalent to staying up all night, or the IQ of a typical 8-year-old kid! Women fared better, however, with "only" a five point drop in IQ [source: Stillman].

Given the IQ decline, it's not shocking that people are also more prone to make mistakes when multitasking. A 2010 French study found that participants were able to adequately handle two tasks at a given time, but a third caused significant errors — three times as many errors as when they were handling just two tasks. The researchers noted that the brain's two hemispheres appear equipped enough to handle two tasks, but a third task put the brain into overload. However, a lot depended on the difficulty of the tasks. Walking, chewing gum and checking your smartphone is easier than driving, eating some fries and looking at your smartphone.

Physiologically speaking, multitasking isn't doing you any favors, either. A University of California, Irvine study showed that frequent interruptions cause people to work faster to compensate for lost time, resulting in elevated stress levels and pressure. Socially, failure to devote attention to important personal conversations and relationships can also cause major issues.

"Buying into the myth of multitasking allows us to convince ourselves that we can do it all and that we don't have to make hard decisions about where to spend our time. The more you fall into the trap of multitasking the less you commit to one clear priority," author Clear explains. "I think this ends up costing us in a very big way over the long term because the people who rise to the top of nearly every field are the ones who show some sort of unwavering commitment to that area (often combined with natural talent)."

Obviously, all tasks are not created equal. It requires far more concentration to do calculus than sing along with Fifth Harmony (provided you know all the lyrics by heart). To that end, it's possible to do some tasks simultaneously.

"Tasks that are automatic or don't require much attention allow for a sort of multitasking ... But it's hopeless to try to conduct two or more tasks at once when each of them requires that we pay attention to what we're doing," Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde, neuroscientist and co-author of "Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions" explains in an email interview. "A much better and productive strategy is to carry out the two tasks in sequence. We must also consider the sort of situation we're in, and its consequences. Texting a friend while we watch a movie may mean that we miss a critical point of the plot (not a big loss), but texting a friend while driving may have far more serious consequences."

Although it might not be as impressive as X-ray vision or web-slinging, there are some who are supertaskers. "Researchers from the University of Utah discovered that 2.5 percent of a group of 200 undergraduates were exceptional performers in a simulation that mimicked driving while talking on a cell phone. This study suggests that there are people for whom multitasking, even with complex tasks, can be effective," Gratias writes in her e-book, "Love Your Calendar...and be monogamous." The jury's still out on why certain people are supertaskers, but researchers hypothesize that their brain's unique abilities could be due to genetics.

Clear urges caution against assuming membership in this category, however. "Some jobs really do require a person to be exceptional at handling multiple, simultaneously occurring events, and some people are supertaskers," he says. "However, don't create the need to multitask where it doesn't already exist, and avoid habitual multitasking simply because 'that's the way I've always done it.'"

In today's notification-heavy society, it can seem like a pipe dream to downshift multitasking habits. "The advent of smartphones has absolutely increased our propensity for multitasking. It gives us a device that we carry with us almost at all times that is a black hole of attention," Dr. Gratias notes. "We are pinged and dinged and notified to pieces about incoming messages that pull us away from the task at hand."

Fortunately, there are some pretty simple ways to kick, or at least minimize, the practice. First, turn off all email, social media and other alerts, even your phone's ringer. "A simple practice that my clients find incredibly effective is to use the timer on their phone and set it for 15 minutes, for example. Focus on one thing for that 15-minute time. It's almost like giving yourself permission to close down email and work on one task to the exclusion of all others," says Gratias.

Some experts also recommend batch processing emails. Rather than checking your inbox constantly, all day long, set specific time periods every few hours to read and respond to messages. By doing so, you won't get pulled off in a million different directions that often have little or nothing to do with the tasks that truly need to be completed.

Schedule appointments to handle especially large, daunting tasks. Go to a meeting room if it helps with concentration.

Finally, keep your workspace clean and orderly because clutter is likely to attract attention when the mind starts to wander [source: Jarrow].