On any given day, our lives can become inundated with tasks that require us to divide our attention among multiple tasks. In an age of information overload, the workplace, family, and social events require us to continually juggle responsibilities. Attending to multiple tasks has become such an integrated approach to life that if you were to ask most people if they are capable of dividing their attention among tasks they would unequivocally agree. However, research indicates that 98 percent of people who multitask significantly sacrifice the quality of their performance. A current study by the University of London indicates that multitasking can reduce your IQ. Researchers found that incessant emailing and text-messaging could reduce one’s cognitive ability by an average of 10 IQ points (5 points for women, 15 points for men). This performance effect was found to be similar to not sleeping for an entire night! Moreover, a recent study of executive functioning and mental control found that productivity can be reduced by as much as 40 percent when people switch between multiple complex tasks. And while these results may not come as a surprise to many, we have all heard the stories where divided attention has resulted in devastating consequences. In order to improve mental efficiency and productivity it is best to focus on one task at a time. So the next time you find yourself attending to too much, assess your priorities, eliminate distractions, and sustain the quality of your focus by targeting one manageable task at a time.
