Myth One- Multitasking

Let me continue with my summary of the article: "You Say Multitasking Like It's A Good Thing". The first myth that Mr. Abate looks at is the idea that multitasking is efficient. He discovered that research proves that multitasking is not very efficient. Our brains can only focus on one task at a time if it involves high-level thinking. "the interruption of one task requires us to remember when we stopped, so that when we return to this task we can resume the activity".

Multitasking is actually a stop and go process. In a study submitted to Neuron, Vol 52 (December 20, 2006) researchers actually used magnetic resonance experiments to show that the brain has bottleneck areas that slows down the learning process. This bottleneck effect actually limits people on their ability to carry out higher-level multitasking. So there is a solid reason that people make a to-do list and check each line off as they progress on their tasks.