Multitasking and not being present can pose hazards to health and safety in the industry

Let us talk communications, being present and multitasking for a minute. How often do we hear, “I didn’t know that?”, “That was never stated,” or “Geez, be great to have been told this?” Communications — good, clear, consistent communications — often do not occur in our places of work and continue to be a constant struggle. Let me ask you, how many meetings do you go to? How many meetings do you go to where you are truly “present” and listening and learning in the moment? Or are you distracted in some way because that meeting is “not my cup of tea” or “a waste of time.” Can being present or not present affect health and safety? Multitasking can hinder your performance Of course it can. How often do we laugh at the online videos of people who are walking and looking at their phone but trip and fall or almost get hit by a passing car? It is the same thing when we are sitting in meetings. Humans often think we can multitask, but really, did you know that our brains cannot do multiple things at once? We operate mostly from our unconscious and from our muscle memory. According to neuroscience, people cannot really multitask. Multitasking is a myth, and the human brain can only perform one task that requires high-level brain function at a time. Only a very small percentage of people are able to multitask effectively, and the rest of us are just creating an illusion of doing two complex activities simultaneously. An article by Cleveland Clinic (2021) helps us understand why multitasking does not work (see reference at the end of this article).Some days, you feel like a master multitasker as you drink your morning coffee, catch up on emails and tune into a conference call. But did you know that for most people, in most situations, multitasking isn’t actually possible? We are really wired to be monotaskers, meaning that our brains can only focus on one task at a time, says neuropsychologist Cynthia Kubu, Ph.D. “When we think we’re multitasking, most often we aren’t really doing two things at once. But instead, we’re doing individual actions in rapid succession, or task-switching,” she said. A study by Watson and Strayer found that just 2.5 percent of people are able to multitask effectively. For the rest of us, our attempts to do multiple activities at once are not actually that.Other studies show that when our brain is constantly switching gears to bounce back and forth between tasks, especially when those tasks are complex and require our active attention, we become less efficient and more likely to make a mistake. This might not be as apparent or impactful when we are doing tasks that are simple and routine like listening to music while walking or folding laundry while watching television. But when the stakes are higher and the tasks are more complex, trying to multitask can negatively impact our lives — or even be dangerous. Multitasking divides your attention So-called multitasking divides our attention. It makes it harder for us to give our full attention to one thing. For example, in one study, attempting to complete additional tasks during a driving simulation led to poorer driving performance. Other studies suggest that people who frequently “media multitask” (like listening to music while checking email or scrolling through social media while watching a movie) are more distracted and less able to focus their attention even when they are performing only one task. Multitasking can affect your ability to learn Multitasking can also affect our ability to learn, because in order to learn, we need to be able to focus. “The more we multitask, the less we actually accomplish, because we slowly lose our ability to focus enough to learn,” Kubu said. “If we’re constantly attempting to multitask, we don’t practice tuning out the rest of the world to engage in deeper processing and learning.” One study found that college students who tried to multitask took longer to do their homework and had lower average grades. Multitasking makes it harder to be mindful Another pitfall is that trying to do too much at once makes it harder to be mindful and truly present in the moment, and mindfulness comes with a plethora of benefits for our minds and our bodies. Many therapies based on mindfulness can even help patients suffering from depression, anxiety, chronic pain and other conditions. Opting to focus on one task at a time can benefit many aspects of our life, including the workplace. Take surgeons, for example. “People assume that a surgeon’s skill is primarily in the precision and steadiness of their hands. While there’s some truth to that, the true gift of a surgeon is the ability to single-mindedly focus on one person and complete a series of task over the course of many hours,” Kubu explained. But surgeons are not necessarily born with this ability to monotask. Rather, they develop and perfect it through hours of practice. And you can, too. “You don’t need to be a surgeon to benefit from freeing yourself of the pressure to multitask,” Kubu said. “Whether it’s taking a long road trip, organizing an event or reading a book, we unequivocally perform best one thing at a time. I encourage you to give it a try.” When it comes to good communications, staying healthy and safe, I encourage you to put down the phone, tuck away any other distractions that you may have going on during that meeting or pretask hazard assessment and be present. Have your mind clear and ready to receive information, process, learn and communicate. References Cleveland Clinic (2021) “Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work” https://health.clevelandclinic.org/science-clear-multitasking-doesnt-work Additional references available from the author.

Multitasking and not being present can pose hazards to health and safety in the industry

Authored by: Lara Sims, Health & Safety Division Communications Chair

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