The Shocking Truth About Multitasking (And How Martial Arts May Help)

For decades, we've celebrated multitasking. We've been asked about it on job interviews, and we've held it up as one of our strengths when relating stories of our workplace prowess in order to land that job. 

Even on the homefront, parents (and let's be honest, especially Moms) have long had the uncanny ability to juggle the baby, the toddler, the dog, and everyone's schedule in the house. Beginning their days in a fine-tuned, efficient regimen that would make any Army Drill Sergeant proud, everyone would be roused from slumber, washed, dressed, fed, walked, and out the door within 60 minutes flat.

And now we're learning about the dark side of multitasking. Teenagers, and yes, even adults, are trained like Pavlov's dogs to check their cell phone for every beep and buzz for the latest text, Snapchat, Facebook update, and even that nearly-extinct mode of communication, the phone call. We do it in meetings at work, and in gatherings with friends. And when we look up from the warm glow of the phone, thinking we can indeed "do it all," it takes us a minute to wipe the "Huh?" from our face and recall where we are, who we're actually with, what they may have just said to us, and what we're doing.

Texting while driving has been called the new "drunk driving" because it's proven to distract drivers more, and slow their reaction times more, than alcohol. Given what we know alcohol does to the brain and nervous system, the fact that texting while driving makes us more dangerous underscores the idea that our brain simply cannot perform two tasks at once well.

Multitasking takes us out of the moment. It is the opposite of millenia-old techniques and philosophies like Zen, meditation, and other salves that humans have found improve focus, rather than detract from it.

So where does the jury stand on multitasking? Is it a virtue of career and parental excellence? Or is it a parasite eating away at our ability to focus on what we're doing in the moment? 

Dr. Travis Bradberry published an article in Forbes that presents the results of a few studies conducted by prominent institutions, including Stanford University, about what multitasking does to our brains. The truth will shock you.

How Multitasking Impacts Our Brain

I encourage you to read Dr. Bradberry's full article, but here, in list form, are the highlights. When you're done reading this, perhaps you'll deem "lowlights" to be a better word choice.

• The Stanford study found that multitasking makes us less productive.

• People who focused on one thing at a time accomplished more, and had better memory recall.

• The Stanford study even analyzed a specific sub-group: those who believed they were really good at multitasking, and actually thought it made them perform better. The results from Stanford? In a word: Hogwash. This sub-set of people performed the worst. They "had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another," Bradberry tells us.

• Conclusion: Our brains can only focus on one thing at a time. That means, you can't, in fact, text and drive. You're not doing either effectively. Here's what I mean:

• A University of London study found that multitasking lowers IQ. (Quite a bit in fact.) Grown men in this study lost 15 IQ points, which dropped their IQ levels down to the level of the average 8-year-old child. Bradberry drives the point home in his article when he writes, "So the next time you’re writing your boss an email during a meeting, remember that your cognitive capacity is being diminished to the point that you might as well let an 8-year-old write it for you."

• One more study, this one from the University of Sussex, found that multitasking may cause brain damage. Researchers had study participants watch TV while simultaneously texting on their phones. When they scanned the volunteers' brains in an MRI machine, the investigators found damage to the parts that are responsible for empathy, and cognitive and emotional control. Scary stuff if you ask me.

So I'm sold. I've seen enough. I'm trying to get better at putting aside my distractions and staying focused on one thing at a time, whenever possible.

But perhaps the most important task ahead of us is to cast shadow on multitasking, and place a new virtue into the light. Let's praise the lost art of doing one thing at a time, and doing it well.

That's one of the reasons why I value my martial arts training so much. I've found that when I am in class, it's one of the very few times in my week when I am in the moment. I'm truly and deeply focused practicing my technique. The time flies by because I enter this flow state.

Aside from keeping my IQ out of the 4th Grade level, I find the focus I have in my martial arts class enhances my mood too. I'm sure there will be more studies about multitasking that will report out in the next few years. I look forward to reading them. And I won't be surprised if researchers conclude focus improves mood.  But I promise you I won't be reading them on my cell phone when I'm in the company of my friends.

From now on, instead of lauding my juggling skills, I'll be keeping distractions at bay, and elevating the role of focus in my life.

What about you? For sure, there are events during our day when we are forced to switch gears and perform a few tasks at a time. But will you look for those opportunities where you truly can control where you'll place your attention? 

I think your brain will thank you, and so will the people around you.