Katie Coen

I always prided myself on being a multitasker. My mom would ask “how can you pay attention to your phone and have a conversation at the same time?” and I would respond, simply, “I don’t know. I just do.”

Now being a college student in an accelerated program trying to balance classes, a job I love, and a social life, I would say I “multi-task” almost everyday. But when I think about it, do I really get multiple tasks done at once? I can pay attention to a television show and scroll through social media at the same time, but when it comes to completing activities and moving on, it doesn’t usually happen. 

Thinking of the different effects of multitasking outlined by Hari, I see them all in my own life. The switch cost effect is displayed when the brain has to switch its task back and forth between many things, and as a result, the tasks take more time. When I’m doing an assignment or trying to write and I get a text message, it takes me a lot of time to refocus on my original task. And then when I think I’m back to focusing, I mess something up.

That’s the screw-up effect. When you are attempting to work on multiple things at once, you are more likely to make a mistake. I work as a news producer for a local station in Connecticut. Sometimes, we get breaking news right before the show starts. The overwhelmed feeling always comes over me as I switch back and forth between reading a press release from a police department and trying to write a condensed script for my anchors to read. When I first started, I would feel so stressed and flustered from moving back and forth between stories and scripts. That led to a lot of mistakes. Since then, I have learned to relax and take each breaker as it comes. I know that moving my mind around too much will overwhelm me and cause an unnecessary mistake. As time goes on, I continue to get better at this.

As a professional, I think it is important to remember information while you continue to work and do other tasks. It is valued by employers when people say they can keep track of different events or schedules or timelines at once. As I’ve grown and been exposed to more situations where I need to keep my mind in tip-top shape, I think I’m improving the way I remember important content. Multitasking doesn’t seem to help me in those times of need.

So maybe I’m not a multitasker. And maybe that’s okay.

Source

Hari, Johann. Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again. Crown, 2022.