bp's science: multitasking

A while back, Jess and I watched a segment on NOVA describing that no one is really great at multitasking, and when you are multitasking there is no way to have your cake and eat it too.  Or in other words, "Do two or more things simultaneously, and you'll do none at full capacity."

But when we do multitask, it turns out that women are better at it than men.  New research from the UK published in BMC Psychology, put 120 men and 120 women through a series of tasks.  When completing the tasks one at a time, men and women performed equally.  However, when they were asked to do a number of mixed tasks, the men took 77% longer on the mixed tasks than on one task alone while the women took 69% longer.

And with that, I will continue to cook dinner, feed Ansel, and cut out letters for Oliver all at the same time, none of which I do very well, but I do it (see first paragraph).  Still, I am a believer that multitasking should probably be kept to a minimum when you can.  No one likes carrying on a conversation with someone looking at his/her phone, etc., and there is value in focusing on one task very well and truly thriving at it.

To see how you are affected by multitasking, try this series of tests out.  It's fun.

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