Summary: Why Multitasking Doesn't Work

The myth of doing two things at once

Most of us believe we are good at multitasking. We answer emails during meetings, check messages while studying and listen to podcasts while writing reports, convinced that we are saving time. Research in cognitive psychology suggests otherwise. What feels like doing several things simultaneously is, in most cases, rapid switching between tasks, and every switch carries a cost.

When attention moves from one task to another, the brain needs a moment to "reload" the rules and goals of the new task. These switching costs are small, often fractions of a second, but they accumulate. Studies have found that people who switch frequently take longer to complete tasks and make more errors than those who work on one thing at a time. Perhaps more worryingly, heavy multitaskers are often worse at filtering out irrelevant information, even when they are not multitasking at all.

There are exceptions. We can combine a highly automatic activity, such as walking, with a demanding one, such as having a conversation. The problem arises when two tasks compete for the same mental resources, such as reading and listening to speech. The practical conclusion is not that we should never multitask, but that we should be honest about when it is costing us more than it saves.

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