Whether it’s driving while talking on my cell phone, sending e-mails while on the phone or the 10+ windows I always have open on my two computer screens, it seems multitasking has become a way of life. I am always doing more than one thing at a time to get more stuff done in less time and I am not the only one. These days most people are trying to get more done in less time. So, does multitasking really make you more efficient? Can it be detrimental, or even dangerous?

Here is a quick exercise to prove that point…

Rotate your foot in a clockwise direction and rotate your pointer finger in the other direction at the same time!!! Go ahead and try it! If I go very very slow and concentrate hard, I can do it, but no way doing it fast.

Our brain works hard to fool us into thinking it can do more than one thing at a time. It can’t. Recent MRI studies at Vanderbilt prove that the brain is not built for good multi-tasking. When trying to do two things at once, the brain temporarily shuts down one task while trying to do the other.

Can you relate with this funny video?

But if multitasking is bad, then how do we, in our fast paced society get more things done?  Alex Mandossian posted a great article: Why Multitasking Destroys Your Productivity. He talks about “Stacking” which is a productive use of time doing multiple things because only ONE of the tasks your doing requires mental effort. Stacking helps you to get more done, faster, better and with less mental effort.

Here are some other great articles on multitasking:

• Article in the NYTimes – While multitasking may seem to be saving time, psychologists, neuroscientists and others are finding that it can put us under a great deal of stress and actually make us less efficient.
• Article on ABCNews.com – The Grand Seduction of Multitasking – Put Away the BlackBerry, Stash the iPod: Our Brains Aren’t Built to Multitask.
• Sparp Brains – The Brain Fitness Authority attributes some Memory Problems to Multi-tasking.
• From an article on NPR.org – Don’t believe the multitasking hype, scientists say. New research shows that we humans aren’t as good as we think we are at doing several things at once.
• The American Psychological Association says that new scientific studies reveal the hidden costs of multitasking.

Also check out “Brain Rules” by John Medina and “The Myth of Multitasking” by Author, speaker and time management expert Dave Crenshaw.

Ask yourself this “How is my procutivity when I am multitasking?”.