Maureen Salamon
If you’re checking emails while you’re on Zoom calls, texting during conversations, or watching TV while scrolling social media, you’re multitasking. You’re also typical – but that doesn’t mean you’re doing your brain any favours.
Many people seem to pride themselves on multitasking – doing two or more tasks at the same time – viewing it as a skill that helps them get more done. But the argument against multitasking isn’t quite as simple as “the brain can’t do two things at once”. It can indeed keep many processes running in parallel, but it has a narrower bandwidth for tasks requiring conscious attention, says Dr Andrew Budson, a lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Constant task-switching can take a toll on your brain, however, undermining focus and concentration, working memory (the brain’s ability to temporarily hold and manipulate information) and learning. “It’s not that multitasking is all bad, it’s just that you can successfully multitask with some things, while with others you can’t,” Budson says.
The term multitasking often gets used when the action is actually task-switching. True multitasking involves coupling one unconscious or automatic activity with a conscious activity, such as driving a familiar route while talking on the phone or walking on a treadmill while reading a book. “Those can be done safely together,” Budson says. Task-switching, however, involves attempting two conscious or cognitively demanding tasks at the same time, such as listening to a lecture and texting your friend. We’re not able to do both without one activity detracting from the other because each requires the same part of the brain, Budson explains.
We usually sense when we’re trying to task-switch, veering toward cognitive overload. “If you’re driving in a snowstorm, most people understand that the driver can’t talk because they have to concentrate hard on driving safely,” Budson says. “That’s an example where driving is no longer automatic but is done with conscious thought.”
Trying to task-switch – when the tasks involved sap brain power from the same region – carries hidden cognitive costs, Budson says. These include reduced focus and concentration, more mistakes or overlooked details, slower completion of complex tasks, mental fatigue and increased distractibility.
Task-switching can also hinder working memory and the ability to learn new things, as it’s harder to comprehend what you’re hearing or reading when you’re also thinking about or attending to something else. “Not only can you not pay attention to your spouse adequately if your attention is captured by watching a ball game, for instance, but if you’re asked an hour later what your spouse said, you won’t remember,” Budson says.
Our ability to multitask also declines as we age, Budson notes. Ageing naturally chips away at this ability because the brain’s frontal lobes – which are involved in task-switching – don’t function as efficiently as we get older. Consequently, frequent interruptions may spur more mental fatigue at midlife and beyond. “In many ways, when an older adult is focused on a single task, they can function as well as a younger adult,” he says. “But an older adult cannot switch back and forth between tasks as easily as when they were younger.”
It’s important to understand, however, that these changes are common and don’t necessarily suggest cognitive decline, Budson says. And multitasking and task-switching are not inherently dangerous to your brain. “It will alter our ability to remember things, to perform – all sorts of things will suffer,” he says. “But it won’t hurt the brain to be doing these different things.”
A few simple habits can make it easier for your brain to do one thing at a time. These include time-blocking (setting aside a specific stretch of time for one task, rather than trying to juggle several at once); silencing the noise (turning off unnecessary notifications and attention-grabbers that can pull you away from what you’re doing); taking breaks (to prevent the mental fatigue that makes it harder to stay focused); and batching similar tasks (grouping activities – such as answering emails or making calls – can minimise the cognitive overload that can come with bouncing between unrelated tasks).
Constant task-switching can take a toll on your brain.
The most important strategy to protect your attention, however, happens entirely in your own head. It’s practising mindfulness: paying attention to what’s happening in and around you with an attitude of nonjudgmental acceptance while pushing away distracting thoughts.
One popular mindfulness practice is mindful breathing: sitting in a comfortable position, closing your eyes or softening your gaze, and bringing your attention to the natural rhythm of your breathing. When your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the sensations of breathing. You can do the same while walking or eating, bringing your attention to those sensations.