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Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work - Cleveland Clinic
Studies show it makes us less efficient and more prone to errors
Some days you feel like a master multitasker as you drink your morning coffee, catch up on email and tune into a conference call. But did you know that for most people, in most situations, multitasking isn’t actually possible?
We’re really wired to be monotaskers, meaning that our brains can only focus on one task at a time, says neuropsychologist Cynthia Kubu, PhD. “When we think we’re multitasking, most often we aren’t really doing two things at once, but instead, we’re doing individual actions in rapid succession, or task-switching,” she says.
One study found that just 2.5% of people are able to multitask effectively. For the rest of us, our attempts to do multiple activities at once aren’t actually that.
Studies show it makes us less efficient and more prone to errors
Some days you feel like a master multitasker as you drink your morning coffee, catch up on email and tune into a conference call. But did you know that for most people, in most situations, multitasking isn’t actually possible?
We’re really wired to be monotaskers, meaning that our brains can only focus on one task at a time, says neuropsychologist Cynthia Kubu, PhD. “When we think we’re multitasking, most often we aren’t really doing two things at once, but instead, we’re doing individual actions in rapid succession, or task-switching,” she says.
One study found that just 2.5% of people are able to multitask effectively. For the rest of us, our attempts to do multiple activities at once aren’t actually that.