It may seem like a bold and abrasive thing to say that multitasking will drag a person down to hell. To many people, the concept of hell is one in which people are burning and in lots of pain. But the true definition of hell in a religious sense is that of damnation.
Hellfire and damnation is a picture that many a pastor has painted to urge those in their church congregation to do things that keep them out of hell. Many people go straight to the depiction of a devil and horns and lava flow as they conjure up thoughts of that awful place. But hell is none of that. Hell is staying stagnant. Hell is never accomplishing things. Hell on earth can be caused by trying to multitask.
I grew up with aspirations to become a great multitasker. Then I realized that multitasking is like this sneaky little monster that will poison you by degrees until you have been robbed of all your productive and creative potential.
But for some reason, multitasking has, for a long time, been seen as somewhat of a special skill that enables you to carry out lots of different tasks at the same time. As time went on, people started to realize that multitasking is actually a lot less efficient than focusing on one things at a time. In most cases, it divides your attention span across multiple different things and. as a result, you complete more tasks at once but at a slower pace. As more people moved away from multitasking, they started to notice that they also felt less stressed at home and in the workplace.
This led to many people considering multitasking as a problematic practice, but it may go deeper than just being a frustrating and stressful experience. Instead, multitasking could actually be damaging your brain.
The Definition of Multitasking
To deal with more than one task at a time while switching concentration between them.
Multitasking is often looked at as a skill. A lot of people believe that being able to handle more than one task at a time is a blessing, and will often ignore the issues which splitting concentration can cause.
No one can concentrate fully on two things at once, and this means that a big part of your time multitasking will be relying on instinct and autopilot, ultimately dropping the quality of your work in the long-run.
Of course, though, this doesn’t just apply to those who are using their multitasking abilities for work; a lot of people will use it as a way to eat up time, as well.
Mobile phones and social media are great examples of this. It can be all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking you can use your phone at work and end up with the same results as someone concentrating on their job. In reality, though, those who let themselves get distracted like this will often spend far less time working than they realise.
Food can present similar issues, with more and more people opting to eat while they do their work. You don’t really have to concentrate on eating to do it successfully, but trying to concentrate fully on anything else will be a challenge when you’re munching your lunch. Thanks to the smell your food will produce, this could also impact the people working around you.
Multitasking Can Lower IQ
While IQ isn’t necessarily the most accurate measurement of your intelligence, it can still be associated with how you process problems and certain thoughts. Studies have shown that multitasking can stress the brain and lower your IQ over a period of time, making it very similar to the effects of smoking marijuana or sleep deprivation. Drops of up to 15 IQ were observed in men that multitask.
Multitasking Damages Your Brain
Most people believed that cognitive impairment from multitasking was temporary. However, new research has shown that it might actually be a permanent problem since it lowers your brain density in the anterior cingulate cortex. This is a region of the brain that is responsible for regulating emotions such as empathy. It was observed in people that spend a lot of time on multiple devices, such as watching TV while also using their smartphone and tablet.
Multitasking Isn’t Always Beneficial
Studies have shown that multitasking might actually be more of a problem than it is a benefit. While it has long been considered a special skill, the reality is that heavy multitaskers aren’t actually very good at performing multiple tasks at the same time. This was explained in the beginning with multitaskers actually being slower because each task they take on is completed at a slower rate. These studies also showed that heavy multitaskers found it difficult to switch from one task to another due to being less mentally organized.
What Can Be Done About Multitasking?
Although multitasking can be bad for the brain, it’s important to mention that there are cases where multitasking can be a good thing. But in order to minimise its effects on the brain, we suggest limiting your multitasking to just two tasks at once if you have to. If you’re considering multitasking, make sure they’re using different senses. For instance, you can listen to a podcast and clean the house at the same time, but try to avoid repeating things like writing two documents at the same time or trying to manage two conversations at once.
We hope that this article has given you some idea of how multitasking can be bad for your brain, but also some advice on how you can minimise the negative effects of multitasking.
