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One “Think” at a Time: Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work

April 6, 2016 By Keri Bischoff Clapp 2 Comments

Multitasking

Ask students how many consider themselves expert “multitaskers” and a lot of hands will go up.  Our society prizes the ability to juggle—to keep multiple balls in the air at one time.  You read a difficult case assignment, peruse online news, and respond to incoming texts.  In class, you listen to discussion, take notes, and check social media.  You’re probably reading this blog while doing something else.  We congratulate ourselves on being efficient jugglers, but are we?

Can we Multitask?

Some say the term multitasking was first used to refer to a computer’s ability to process two applications at the same time.  By 1990s, the term flooded popular jargon.   As technology made it increasingly possible to be available and have access to information around the clock, being a skilled human multitasker became a point of pride.  The problem is that human brains are not computers.  Science increasingly supports the unpopular reality that multitasking is a myth.

One “Think” at a Time

It turns out that people can only attend to one cognitive task at a time.  You may be able to listen to music while you fold laundry but you cannot simultaneously pay attention to two activities that require thinking, like class reading and texting with friends.  Like the juggler who can only touch one ball at a time with his hand, we can only think about one thing at a time.  And yes, even students who grew up with technology lack the ability to do two thinking tasks at once.  What we believe is multitasking is really “switchtasking”–switching rapidly between tasks.

Switchtasking isn’t just a name change.  It turns out that switchtasking wears us out, dumbs us down, and makes us sloppy.

  • Switchtasking decreases productivity by as much as 40%. One study showed that incoming emails and phone calls could cause a 10-15 point fall in IQ which is equal to a night without any sleep.  Any learning you do takes longer.
  • Asking your brain to operate on hyperdrive by switching from one task to another actually mimics the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder. It creates problems and exacerbates any preexisting difficulties in planning and follow-through.  Learning is more scattered and less focused.
  • Attending to multiple streams of information makes learning less likely to “stick.” Focusing on one thing at a time allows the brain to make deeper connections that result in more flexible long-term retention. When our attention is divided at the moment we “save” a memory, our brains don’t store it as well.  Therefore, we have a harder time remembering information and transferring it to new situations.  The typical law school exam requires exactly this skill of applying learned concepts to novel hypotheticals, so this finding has particular negative implication for law students.
  • Switchtasking may even cause brain damage. One recent study found that people who spent significant time switchtasking on multiple devices have lower density in the region of the brain responsible for cognitive and emotional control.  Continuing to behave as if we can successfully multitask may actually be changing our brain structure.

Strategies that Work

So, what is a busy law student to do?  First, recognize that turning off your phone and other distractions will make your studying time more efficient.  You’ll get more learning done in less time and what you learn will stick with you and be more accessible when you try to recall it.  Try making your attention shifts more deliberate by developing a ritual to signify that you are moving on to a new task such as changing rooms or keeping track of your time.   In short, accept that your marvelously adept and capable brain simply isn’t a computer.  (Or, if you prefer, think of it as a computer that gets overloaded really quickly!)

So, feel free to walk and chew gum, check your email when the game is on, and listen to music while you bake a cake, but when learning matters, embrace the novel concept of doing one thing–or think– at a time.

— – —

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And check out these helpful posts:

  • How Being a Law Student and a Functional Human Don’t Have to Be Mutually Exclusive
  • How to Organize Your To-Do List in Law School
  • Need More Time? Study Smart Before Your Law School Class
  • Dealing With Law School Time Regret

Photo Credit: Jiri Vratislavsky /Shutterstock


 

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About Keri Bischoff Clapp

Keri Bischoff Clapp is a tutor for Law School Toolbox and Bar Exam Toolbox. Keri’s love for writing led her to journalism school and then directly to law school, which she absolutely loved. Keri was an executive editor and published author of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. After law school, she learned many life and professional lessons by clerking for a woman federal District Court judge in Philadelphia. Keri then joined a large Philadelphia law firm as a litigation associate and later worked as in-house and trial counsel for a U.S. government office.

The next act of Keri’s career brought her into the classroom to teach undergraduates and law school students. Among other courses, she has taught business law, legal research and writing, and bar exam preparation.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. james lewis

    04.12.16

    completely off base. Multi tasking is related to the ability to comprehend more then one subject at one time. the relationship between multitasking my machine and the ability to do more than one thing at the same time is irreverent. its the mind where you multi task. the brain has two hemispheres that can think together on the same subjects.

    Reply
    • Keri Bischoff Clapp

      05.17.16

      Interesting response James. Although using the entire brain (both hemispheres) to think together on the same subject isn’t what I meant by multitasking. I was referring to the belief many have that we can attend to two (or more) different mentally challenging tasks at the same time. Science has largely debunked that theory. In any event, thinking about how you learn is a good way to improve productivity. Thanks for reading.

      Reply

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