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Multitasking: The Number 1 Worst Lie People Think They Can Achieve

Dominic Medford
3 min readAug 9, 2024
Photo by Jim DeGrandis on Unsplash

In today’s fast-paced world, multitasking is often hailed as a valuable skill. The ability to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously is seen as a hallmark of productivity. However, growing evidence suggests that multitasking might be a societally accepted form of procrastination, undermining efficiency and productivity rather than enhancing it.

The Myth of Multitasking

  1. Cognitive Overload:
  • Multitasking splits attention between tasks, leading to cognitive overload. Our brains are not designed to handle multiple complex tasks at once, which can result in decreased performance and increased errors.
  • Source: The American Psychological Association reports that switching tasks can cause a loss of up to 40% of productive time due to the cognitive “switching cost” .

2. Superficial Processing:

  • When multitasking, we tend to process information superficially. This shallow engagement with tasks can lead to poor comprehension and retention, ultimately impacting the quality of work.
  • Source: A study by Stanford University found that heavy multitaskers are less effective at filtering irrelevant information and have poorer memory recall.

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Dominic Medford
Dominic Medford

Written by Dominic Medford

Law and Political Sciences student in Australia who dabbles in writing about his thought processes in his spare time with the hope that it can be insightful.

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