Multitasking: a myth or an advantage?

You’ve probably heard that men are supposedly incapable of multitasking, whereas women find it easy to work in this way. The truth is that no one can multitask brilliantly and the more often you try, the more distracted, distractible and inefficient you’ll become.

You may find this hard to believe—after all, we’re often encouraged to think of multitasking as a good thing, particularly at work. In fact, many people feel guilty about turning off their electronic devices and focusing on only one task at a time. This is, however, the secret of efficiency and accuracy. Multitasking is false economy.

When you believe you’re doing two or more things at the same time, what’s actually happening is that you’re switching back and forth from one task to another. This is because the human brain is incapable of performing two cognitive tasks simultaneously. You do this so rapidly that you’re generally unaware of it, but the effort of switching your attention between tasks—even simple ones—costs time and mental effort. Professor David Meyer at the University of Michigan found that when individuals attempted to perform two or more related tasks simultaneously, it took them far longer—sometimes up to twice as long--to complete both than it did when they worked through the tasks sequentially. Meyer believes that when we multitask, we also increase the chance of making mistakes.

Because it’s more stressful to try to juggle several tasks at once than it is to focus on each one in turn, multitasking is accompanied by the release of stress hormones and adrenaline, making us feel ‘wired’. In time, such behaviour may even lead to lapses in short term memory.

There’s yet another downside to multitasking. When you remain open to other possibilities while trying to focus on one task—in particular, if you allow phone calls, emails or texts to interrupt you while you’re working on something else—you lose considerable time getting back to your original task. In a study of employees at Microsoft offices in Redmond, Washington, results showed that each time an individual was interrupted by their electronic devices, it took them approximately 15 minutes to re-engage in complicated tasks such as writing up reports.

Question 1 (2 points) Indicate whether the following statements are true or false and write down which part of the text justifies your answer.

a. Men are known to be unable to do two or more things at a time.

b. People think that multitasking is productive when they’re at work.

c. You spend the same amount of time doing two things simultaneously as doing one thing after the other.

d. We may feel tired and unable to remember things as a result of multitasking.

Question 2 (2 points) Answer the following questions in your own words.

a. What effects does multitasking have?

b. What advice can you get from the text as far as electronic devices are concerned?

Question 3 (1.5 points) Find words or phrases in the text that correspond in meaning to the words and definitions given.

a. urge (par.2)                   b. ignorant (par.3)                               c. try (par.3)

d. liberate (par.4)               e. drawback (par.5)

Question 4 (1.5 points) Complete the following sentences without changing the meaning.

1. Meyer believes that when we multitask, we also increase the chance of making mistakes.

Mayer said that ………………………………

2. A group of psychologists have conducted experiments on the nature and limits of human multitasking.

Experiments …………………………………

3. When we multitask, we increase the chance of making mistakes.

If we didn’t ………………………………          

Question 5 (3 points) Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic:

            What’s your ideal job? Why?