There is no neuroscientific evidence that human beings can multi-task. Sorry ladies!
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that, when we try, we’re doing more harm than good.
Click on the video below to hear 2 minutes of a keynote speech I gave to Pearson recently, just after I’d set them a task to prove the dangers of the multi-tasking myth.
To be clear, I can’t say that we’re mentally incapable of multi-tasking. I can say that there is no neuroscientific evidence that we are able to fully concentrate on 2 tasks equally at the same time.
What there is evidence of – and what the exercise given to the Pearson delegates shows – is our ability to switch-task.
In the exercise, Task 1 is writing words and then writing numbers (with a race to complete both as quickly as possible).
Task 2 has the same result at the end (a sentence and a list of numbers) but is created through writing a letter then a number, then a letter then a number and so on.
As our audience discovered, there are costs to switch-tasking:
1. It typically takes longer
2. We make more mistakes
3. It’s more stressful doing it
There is an additional cost in a sales situation, or any situation in which we’re trying to have meaningful communication with another person or people:
WE’RE UNLIKELY TO BE LISTENING TO THEM. Not properly anyway.
There is something magical about having 100% of the attention of the person you’re talking to.
You can’t create that magic if you’re switching tasks instead of listening to people.
We don’t multi-task. We quickly switch between 2 tasks. And there are costs.
My advice is to stop.
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