No More Multitasking

Living in the era of technology can influence us to do multitasking. Multitasking is a way to do many activities at the same time. Some people assume that multitasking is an art, an art that not many people can handle very well. Sometimes, multitasking can be good to do because we can finish many activities just in one time and we are motivated for more works. On the other hand, in my mind, doing more than one thing at a time too much cannot give many benefits for us.

The first disadvantage, we will lose our focus. When we do multitasking, there are many things what we have to think and to do. In the book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Mindfulness," Anne Ihnen and Carolyn Flynn discuss the bad effect of multitasking that does not allow our brain to rest between tasks, which wastes time in refocusing on the most important duty that must be performed. For example, when we are talking on the phone while watching TV, doing homework while eating, texting while driving, can decrease our focus. We cannot focus if we do those things at the same time.

The other disadvantage, multitasking can give bad effect for our brain. One of the bad effects is the memory impairment. It can happen because multitasking can lead to over-stimulation of our brain function. Our brain cannot multitask because our brains have cognitive limits. By having too much information at the same time, our brain cannot differentiate a lot of information between what is important and what is not important. A 2009 study by Clifford Nass, Ph.D., and others at Stanford University shows that participants who multitask, most of them are distracted by unimportant information that is stored in their short-term memory. When do multitasking, we are not focus on one thing, but also focus on many things. As humans, we have to realize that our brains are not a computer. Our brains have created by God to be focus on one thing so that we can do the best.

In brief, multitasking is not always being a choice for us to finish our works. Those disadvantages of multitasking are we should know. We can find other ways that can make us stay away from less focus and bad effect for brain. Indeed, do not let our self to be multitaskers.  

by : Helen Cintiyawati