Multitasking is one of those words that has entered business lexicon but should be considered an urban myth. We posted on this topic a few months ago and now I have come across a short Q&A article from CareerJournal.com that addresses the physical aspects of so-called multitasking.
First, kudos to the author of the question who can really turn a phrase (emphasis mine):
You’ve written that too much multitasking can leave the mind and body marinating in stress hormones. Can you elaborate on the physiological effects?…Brief or infrequent stress responses pose little risk. But when a person responds this way habitually or over long periods, the risk of injury or disease rises. Evidence is growing that some people’s stress response plays a role in such chronic health problems as psychological ailments or cardiovascular or musculoskeletal disorders, NIOSH says.
I realize some employees are better at accomplishing tasks and goals than other employees. Typically, this ability has more to do with personal drive, goal focus and results orientation than it does with a mythical multitasking ability. From our earlier post:
While multitaskers seem to be accomplishing a lot, they are in most cases literally just going through the motions.
Multitasking doesn’t look to be one of the great strengths of human cognition, says James C. Johnston, a research psychologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. It’s almost inevitable that each individual task will be slower and of lower quality.