With smartphones, social networking, tablets and so on, it's becoming more and more difficult to block out distractions and focus on the task at hand. When it's easy to send someone a text message and get an instant reply and having your email on your phone, it's extremely tempting to try to do everything at once. We all know that multi-tasking isn't the most effective way to accomplish anything, but we still do it.
There have been a number of studies that suggest that when we multi-task, we lower our performance across the board and end up taking longer to accomplish each task than it would have taken if we weren't interrupted. It's one of those things that sometimes seems productive, but really aren't. So, why do we keep doing it and seem to be resistant to changing our habits?
It's a good question, and one that researchers at Ohio State University have set out to investigate. After tracking the behavior of people who report frequent multi-taking, they've found that in spite of the productivity hit and increased stress levels, people actually get an emotional boost. This means that even though they aren't getting more accomplished, they feel more emotionally satisfied from their work.
The study also found that multi-taskers felt more entertained and more relaxed at the end of the day. There also seemed to be some self-reinforcing portion to the behavior. The more they multi-task, the more likely they will be to continue the practice, even when they don't have several urgent tasks.
This means that someone who frequently multi-tasks, might find it more comfortable to watch television while using their laptop and texting their friends, rather than just watching the show.
Personally, I'm not very good at multi-tasking. Although I know I can do more than one thing at a time, I prefer to devote my complete attention into whatever I'm doing. If I'm watching a movie, I need to focus on it rather than just catching bits and pieces while doing other things. Otherwise, I miss a lot of the movie and can't focus on the other task.
What do you think about this study? Are you a multi-tasker?
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