The illusion of multitasking (and its high price)

Among the many titles currently available (and I must say apparently increasingly frequent) on the subject of attention and concentration, I foundJohann Hari's, 'Stolen Attention. Why we struggle to concentrate', published by La Nave di Teseo in 2023. As the author points out, the most significant difficulty in studying this phenomenon lies precisely in the fact that we are in the midst of a major transition and it is therefore difficult to draw definitive or, at least, robust and reliable conclusions. Some aspects, however, now seem to be characterised by trends that are almost unanimously shared by the community of scholars dealing with them.

One of these aspects concerns precisely what is known as 'switching', i.e. that mode of managing one's activities and time characterised by a continuous shift from one task to another. Behind this 'switching' it is certainly possible to see the shadow of another phenomenon stretching out: multitasking. To put it another way: if we are constantly switching from one task to another, often of a very different nature, it is because underneath we believe we are able to apply the same level of attention and care to all activities, maintaining an acceptable standard of quality.

In this respect, Johann Hari refers to the discussion he had with Professor Earl Miller, an expert in neuroscience and engaged in cutting-edge brain studies at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

"Your brain can only produce one or two thoughts simultaneously in the conscious mind. We are very limited. It is because of the fundamental structure of the brain and it will not change in the future." According to Miller's reflections that Hari reports in his book, the problem lies in the fact that we continue to feed the myth of the human being's ability to think several things at once. In many cases, this operation is not conscious but simply the result of the continuous and simultaneous stimuli we receive that induce us to 'switch' from one thing to another, believing that we are capable of continuing to implement the full potential of attention and listening. I stress one point: we are here referring to multitasking applied to two or more activities that require thought and concentration. When, on the other hand, we perform two activities, one of which is highly routine and therefore habit-driven, we are technically not engaged in real multitasking.

That said, Miller highlighted three cost factors through which 'switching' deteriorates our 'mental' performance:

- the so-called switch cost, i.e. the expenditure of energy required for our mind to reconfigure itself each time on the current activity, interrupted perhaps a few minutes earlier. All this ends up slowing us down and worsening our performance;

- the so-called 'clutter effect', i.e. the confusion between the things the brain does and the consequent increase in the likelihood of stumbling over mistakes and oversights;

- the absence of gaps and free zones, i.e. moments when our brain is simply not busy doing something. These moments are crucial for rethinking, deepening and connecting previously acquired information. Without this reworking, we are less able to express innovation and creativity.

The more time we spend 'switching', the slower we will be, we will make mistakes, we will be less creative and we will remember less of what we have seen, done and learned. Apparently, most of us today, when we are at work, cannot get an hour of uninterrupted continuous time to attend to our tasks.

If we want to return to dealing with the great issues of this era with awareness, a sense of presence, attention and realising our full potential in the expression of innovative and creative proposals and solutions, we must first limit the 'switching' and recover at least some of that healthy habit of doing (thinking) one thing at a time.

*Partner of Newton S.p.A..