BALTIMORE, MD - A recent study suggests that people who attempt to complete multiple tasks at the same time often don't accomplish a damn thing, especially compared to those who prioritize and attempt to complete tasks one by one.
Despite this, multitaskers are far more likely to pat themselves on the back and brag about their supposed efficiency and productivity, according to the study.
"This adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests just because people claim to be doing several things at once doesn't mean they're getting anything done," said Dr. Sanjay Brown, M.D., who spearheaded the project.
One reason for this may be that people tend to focus more on what they tell people about their efficiency than on their actual efficiency, said Brown, measuring their productivity by how many tasks they are working on at the same time rather than the rate at which they complete them.
In the study, college students were given a set of tasks, followed by a questionnaire about details of the tasks. Those who prioritized the tasks and attempted to complete them one by one in the allotted time finished more of them and performed better on the questionnaire.
Those who had previously identified themselves as "multitaskers" generally accomplished jack shit, and they also performed poorly on the questionnaire.
Researchers found that the biggest braggarts were often at an especially distinct disadvantage; heavy multitaskers also had comparitively slower response times, often because they were distracted by worries others might discover they can't actually multitask.
Though most distractions only lasted about a second in some tests, this could be enough to cause problems in real life situations, said Brown, who noted that it already takes a split second for information to travel from your retina to your brain, which means at 110 kph, you are actually about 11 feet farther down the road than you think you are.
Dr. Brown also said multitasking could potentially harm our ability to perform tasks that require sustained focus, like art, science, and writing, leaving us with an ability to walk and chew gum at the same time, but not much more.
"A disturbing effect is that culture may be pushing us to become more distractible and less able to focus over sustained periods of time," he said.
The implications of the study are expected to be completely missed by those to whom it most applies, as they will most likely be doing something else while reading about it.
