Recently, I’ve been going home after school and doing my homework. Actually, more accurately, I’ve been sitting with a computer in front of me and papers of varying shades of pink, yellow and blue sprawled across my kitchen table as I switch between calculating the molarity of a solution and telling whoever is in the room about how we just purchased a chocolate fountain for Prom. It seems productive, and I often end up feeling accomplished, happy that I finished half of my history reading log — only to realize that I could have completed the whole thing if I hadn’t been alternating between reading a section in the textbook and thinking about my next chemistry test.
The culture we have created as a society pushes the idea that multitasking is the ideal. We tell people to “kill two birds with one stone,” which, besides creating hostile thoughts toward birds, also encourages us to apply a band-aid solution to two different problems, without considering that there might be a better, unique fix to each.
We might think we’re multitasking, but actually doing so doesn’t work. The American Psychological Association explains that there’s no such thing as true multitasking: there’s only switching tasks. Furthermore, switching tasks can cause up to a 40% drop in productivity, meaning that when we try to multitask to be more efficient, we are actually thwarting our own goals.
Of course, like we often conclude in Ethics Bowl, productivity is not always the most important value. However, in situations where it is, such as when studying for a test or preparing for a deadline, it is essential that we recognize its significance and how to achieve it. The first step can be not attempting to multitask. There’s a reason why planners or to-do lists go line by line and item by item. They don’t arrange studying for a biology test, reading for English, reviewing for history and completing practice problems for chemistry all at the same time — and neither should we.
It’s when we try to both annotate an article and listen to people talk that we get distracted, and it’s only by recognizing that that we will be able to maximize our efficiency.
On the other hand, that also means trying to stop thinking about doing work while having fun or relaxing. That’s easier said than done, but we need to understand that it’s unlikely we’ll suddenly stumble upon a magic solution while taking a break. I’m probably not going to figure out how to solve the math problem that I vaguely remember while I’m eating a bag of chips.
Therefore, instead of trying to constantly cross multiple items off our to-do lists at once, it might be more useful and enjoyable to focus on one at a time. When I urgently need to finish a project or write an essay, I don’t linger in the kitchen, talking to anyone and everyone; I take my brightly-colored, infinitely multiplying stack of papers and retreat to the silence of my room. Sometimes, we don’t need to “kill two birds with one stone.” Sometimes, we can just take care of one and then the other, no killing or multitasking necessary.
