So. Many. Things. To. Do. Our lives are hectic, more now than ever. If you are like us, you likely feel pulled in so many directions by work, family, friends, and especially your technology. Because this fast-paced world has slowly crept up on us, it feels as if we should be able to accomplish all that is asked of us in an efficient and successful manor. And yet so many people we talk to feel as if they can’t keep up with those expectations and the lose focus. There is a very good reason why we can’t – and shouldn’t – fall victim to those expectations.
The brain is NOT designed for multitasking.
Our brains have evolved to devote cognitive resources (I like to call it brain juice) to important things while tuning out less important things. The more important/challenging/stimulating the task/exercise, the more brain juice required. This is why you can give a presentation to your boss and not hear the humming of the projector. It’s why an athlete on the free throw line doesn’t see the crowd waiving their hands in the air. Or even why you don’t “remember” your spouse asking you to take out the trash while watching your favorite TV show. It’s not that you have a bad memory, or didn’t see it, or didn’t hear it, it’s that your brain juice is being taken up by something else.
So why are some people better at “multitasking” than others. The trick is that they are actually NOT multitasking. Individuals who, on the surface, appear to be tackling multiple things at once are actually successfully switching between tasks. How? By successfully applying all of their brain juice to the new task and letting the other task fall completely into the background. But this ability has its limits. It also takes brain juice to switch back and forth. So the more you switch back and forth, the harder it is to leave a task in the background.
Can I Get Better?
The short answer is yes. But likely not how you imagine. For cognitively demanding tasks (i.e., tasks that take a lot of brain juice) it’s best to devote a specific and planned amount of time to solely that task. Seems like a no brainer right? Of course. But we often tend to overestimate our ability to multitask, which makes our cognitive performance on each of the tasks we are trying to do become less efficient.
Imagine this scenario. Hypothetically, finishing a work assignment (high brain juice usage) “should” take 30 minutes. And responding to a few emails (medium brain juice usage) “should” take 10 minutes. And replying to a few texts (low brain juice usage) “should” take 3 minutes. In total, these tasks should take 43 minutes. However, if you’re trying to multitask (which I’m assuming you are doing to try and be efficient) you’re wasting brain juice as you switch. In the multitasking scenario the total time spent actually ends up closer to an hour. Stop me if this sounds familiar?
So the best option is the structure your tasks so you have enough brain juice to go around. But we’re realists. This isn’t always going to happen. In this case it can help to practice putting certain tasks on autopilot as best as possible while performing more challenging ones. For example, filing your nails while reading a book, taking a call while making coffee, or planning out a presentation while exercising.
The last example is what we’re hoping to help people with. In our program we are helping individuals train their brain to put exercise on autopilot while they focus on challenging cognitive tasks. The goal is to train your brain to more efficiently use its brain juice when it has multiple things to do at once.
The Takeaway
Your expectation that you can efficiently perform many challenging things at once is likely causing you unnecessary stress and frustration. By planning out how you are going to devote your brain juice and training your brain to put automatic tasks on autopilot, you can experience increased productivity and reduced frustration. And isn’t that what we all want?
Dr. Doug Polster
Co-Founder
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