Mulititasking: Working slower with worse results | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh there's Chuck and we're doing this. on our own flying high like an. eagle to the sea no no no uh and this is. stuff you should know no no no I'm so. annoyed at this uh the the the episode. from 2011 that we somehow recorded in.

2024 it feels that way a little bit. doesn't it yes it does it really does I. think I was annoyed because and I put. this one together so it's my fault but. like I feel like it was just like well. this study says this about multitasking. and this study says this and this study. says this I think you feel that way. because that's exactly what it does. there's just no good story here I think. that's my problem there is there is I. think the story is is that we're gonna. like flip everybody's wig because it.

turns out that multitasking is a myth a. fraud you shouldn't even try to do it. because not only is multitasking. impossible for you to do puny human it. actually makes you worse at what you are. doing yeah I think there are people. plenty of people who think they're great. multitaskers yeah uh they they may be. among the very small small percentage of. people who are super taskers which we'll. talk about mhm but more than likely they.

probably just think they're getting a. lot more done by switching back and. forth between a bunch of different. things yeah when they're really really. not and that's really what we're talking. about multitasking isn't even really. multitasking it's just it's task. switching very fast that's a much much. better description of it task switching. because when you're trying to do. multiple things at once even something. as simple as say like um baking a cake. like stirring like the batter while.

you're talking on the phone you're not. actually doing those two things at the. same time as far as your brain is. concerned it's it's basically flipping. back and forth to make sure you're. you're doing them both. adequately um and we actually can do. something as simple as that fairly well. but the more complex the tasks get and. the more the more numerous the tasks get. everything just starts a short circuit. and you sit there and wake up every. morning and wonder why you're still so.

tired and stressed out all the time it's. multitasking yeah uh since you said. short circuit we should mention the. origin of the term is uh from a computer. ad a. 1965 uh IBM report basically talking. about their new IBM system 360 and. talking about a computer's ability to. multitask or process tasks at the same. time and since then since the 1960s that. really took hold as far as a catchphrase.

and psychologists have gone wild with. doing studies and experiments to see. what are the limits of the human brain. as far as taking on multiple things at. once which again isn't exactly at once. like you can do things like uh at the. same time like bake or stirring batter. and talking on the phone but I think. generally when people are talking about. multitasking today they think more about. I'm sitting at my computer and I've got. like five different tabs that are sort.

of doing different things and I'm also. emailing and I'm researching this and. I'm doing that at the same time and. somebody's texting me and I'm getting. push. notifications yeah it's a thing for sure. that's that's one reason why it's worth. talking about because um if it's not. actually effective and productive people. should know that because it's becoming. such a huge part of our modern world. yeah for sure um so let's talk about it. eh okay so sadly you already hit on the.

fact of the podcast that multitasking. comes from an IBM ad um but you said. that um psychologists had gone I thought. that joke would have gone over better. you said that psychologists had gone. wild like trying to figure out the the. computational processing power of humans. and I think that's actually one of the. first problems that IBM had kind of set. it up for us to view the human brain as. a computer and that's not an exact an.

ology um which is why I think we thought. we could multitask for a while because. we even thought computers could but it. wasn't until the Advent of multi-core. processors that computers themselves. could actually process more more than. one thing at the same time at the at the. outset including for the IBM system 360. the computer with a single CPU was not. actually multitasking it was doing the. same thing that our brains do it was. jumping back and forth between tasks. really fast to make sure it was doing.

them both adequately so um when we kind. of figured out that there was a problem. uh with processing that there were. limits to it um we established very. quickly something called a processing. bottleneck that there is it's documented. humans do not multitask to begin with. and when we try to multitask the results. are terrible and it seems to be because. there's like too much stuff is trying to. get through too narrow a.

passageway yeah and some people think uh. that you know this bottleneck happens. most severely when you're trying to um. plan like an action that you're going to. do at the same time as you're trying to. retrieve uh something from your memory. bank uh memory plays a big part in all. of this and what we're doing like we. said we're task switching we're. performing things in sequence so you're. switching back and forth very quickly.

you think but there is something called. a switching cost so uh every time that. you're um like you and I are researching. or something we're like oh wait I need I. forgot we needed to email Jerry about. something and so I'll stop real quick. and email Jerry and it seems very. seamless and then I go back to my work. but there is a cost to that switch there. where it takes um it takes a second or. two for your brain to kind of ramp back. up into what you were on previously may. not seem like a lot but when you add. that up over a lifetime of work there's.

a lot of inefficiencies going on yeah. for sure so that switching cost is just. a a time lag a loss of productivity when. you go from one task to another right. and especially if we're trying to do two. tasks um at the same time which we can't. but we're switching back and forth over. and over again that switching cost. becomes more and more dramatic and so. those two tasks neither one of them gets. done very well um and and there's some.

theories about what's going on here. there's some rival ones the first one. that was established I think as far back. as the 60s it's called the psychological. refractory period effect and the. psychological refractory um period. Paradigm basically says that when we're. presented with two tasks that are. presented in quick seccession the. response to task two is delayed right. that's documented we know that but. here's why they're saying that it's. because the brain is still processing.

the response to the first stimulus task. one so response two the response to task. two has to wait and so the difference in. time between task two when that when. we're presented with that task and. response one when we we complete the. first task that period is called that. refractory period and then it's followed. by response to so there's a there's a. gap there's a chunk of time where where. we just can't do anything for task two.

because our brains are still working on. task one and then finally when we. complete task one we can start on task. two and that time in between that's the. refractory period and that's what. accounts for that delay in in response. time because our response to task one is. typically shorter than our response to. task two so task two is completed in a. longer amount of time than task one was. because it was it it was given to us.

while we were still trying to complete. task one right uh that's a good way to. put it like there's no progress being. made in that in that downtime right no. not at least on task two from what I can. tell yeah and I don't even think you're. I mean I I guess you're putting to bed. task one I don't think there's real. progress being made at all yeah that's. why some people that's so that's a new. version that's part of the Rival. interpretation they're like no this. actually seems like you're not still. completing task one one during that.

refractory period while you're waiting. on Tas 2 there seems to be a blank spot. where you're not able to do anything. when you're switching from one to the. other oh okay I got you yeah so that's. the new interpretation well what they're. talking about though is the the brain. and when you look at the parts of the. brain the prefrontal cortex is the one. that is you know if if you're doing. something you're paying attention to. something it's your prefrontal cortex. that is at work uh and it spans as we. know the left and right sides of the. brain and it's uh coordinating with each.

other when you're doing one thing at a. time if all of a sudden you have two. things then the left side of your brain. is doing something the right side of the. brain is doing something and it's split. up and that's where that inefficiency. really kicks in right yeah that's based. on a French um fmri study from 2010 back. in the era where we used to call the MRI. the Wonder machine you remember that. that's right so this is like Prime. vintage Wonder machine type study where. they found that you can still do a.

couple of tasks that it does seem like. there's a certain amount of parallel. processing the brain can do when it. splits the two loes the two frontal loes. um up and says here you do this and you. do this we can still kind of do it but. neither one is as good as or as fast as. if we just did one after the other. that's the big joke for. multitasking um but if you add a third. one the brain just goes hey why are just. completely goes kaputs yeah like two one.

is ideal two is possible uh and again. we're not talking about super taskers. which we'll get to and and three is just. don't even try what are you what are you. doing what are you even trying to do. that for or as the French researcher. said forget about it. right oh man that got me I thought you. were about to hit me with a good French. phrase. no I love it uh there was another study. uh conducted at and rebilt.

University uh go commodor right yeah. yeah they're easy like Sunday morning. they are oh boy you're on a roll uh. where they talk about the brain. exhibiting what's called a response. selection bottleneck another bottleneck. but this one's a little different uh if. you're tasked with doing several things. at one time uh the brain says what's. more. important and so it sort of uh chooses. for you um but I also some other studies. that said that um what also might be.

going on is you are maybe subconsciously. if you're trying to juggle two things. the one that you're really paying the. most attention to is either the one that. gives you the most pleasure or the one. that maybe uh can be completed as like a. a sub goal yeah so that's kind of a. different interpretation too so that's. these are kind of Rivals to the. refractory period Paradigm and they're. basically saying like our brains. actually require a moment to switch and.

like we we've kind of established in. that moment we're not actually doing. anything but these two these two. different ones that these two kind of. interpretations that you just mentioned. they strike me as kind of tomato tomato. because they're Sally saying the same. thing one is that you know the brain has. to decide which activity is important. and that it takes more time the the the. other one from David Myer University of. Michigan is saying well the brain has. this thing called adaptive executive.

control that says um this priority is. more important than this priority so I. need to work on this one first it's this. it's the same thing like I genuinely. could not find what the distinction is. and there's even some bad reporting on. some of this stuff where I saw um David. Meyer in his study from University of. Michigan was essentially described to to. suggest that that it's showing like oh. yeah we can we can do um uh multitasking. we can process in parallel and that's. not at all correct like he's saying like.

you can't do that at all um I don't know. how it got all kind of messed up like. that but there doesn't seem to be. anybody who says no we actually can. everyone every single study is it shows. that we can't the the difference between. the studies is trying to interpret the. results in different ways to explain why. we can't or what happens when we try all. right so we're going to multitask now. take a break go read a couple of ads and. we'll be right right. [Music].

[Music]. back all right so we're back with. multitasking um I mentioned early on. that memory uh like memory recall uh.

when you're trying to do something else. can can really suffer and so we should. talk about memory a little bit uh. there's a guy named George Miller who. was a psychologist at Harvard who. basically says the human brain as far as. recall goes uh is centered around the. number seven uh with a little variation. uh up and down by two uh so he's done. studies where they basically just say. hey repeat these numbers after me and. what they found is the.

average number of numbers that someone. can repeat back to somebody is seven um. and again it goes up and down a little. bit some people are inherently just. going to be much better at that and. maybe can rattle off 15 right but that. the average came down to to seven so. what people do when they're trying to. learn things or make something memorable. is parse things out and separate them. into smaller bits for storage yeah and. so we do that with telephone numbers. Social Security numbers any string of 10.

numbers we almost always put hyphens or. dots or something together dates um it's. just almost like an inherent thing that. we do an intuitive thing but we do that. to to make it easier on our working. memory remembering three sets of three. numbers is easier for our brains to keep. in our working memory than one long set. of nine numbers yeah I mean I guess. there's no reason a social security. number should have those dashes right I. think that's exactly why it has dashes.

yeah so you can so you can remember so I. can just rattle out 28796 9473 oh man I. hope that's not legit what I so like. what could someone do with that are you. the LifeLock guy. now of course that's not I'm surprised I. was able to even do that successfully. without saying my real social security. number it was really impressive actually. I just said a bunch of numbers so just. kind of as a side note we've been. talking a lot about working memory and. that's a huge part of multitasking.

because when you multitask you are. you're not you're by definition not. completing one thing before moving onto. the other you're stopping mid-task to. move on to something else which you. probably stop mid task to go back to the. first one or go to a third thing M. that's what multitasking is like there's. no if you do it sequentially rather than. um at the same time concurrently then. you're not multitasking so it requires. working memory it requires attention it.

requires self-regulation it requires an. ability to keep goals directed uh in the. back of your head and also to be able to. place those goals on pause while you. move on to another. goal and uh if you have. ADHD you are um you have a challenge. with every single one of those things. memory attention self-regulation goal. Direction so it it's multitasking is. really really hard. for people with ADHD because it requires.

a lot of functions that a lot of people. with ADHD struggle with um the big. difference is and a lot of I think I. read at least one study it's like well. if you have ADHD you know you're just. completely distracted all the time you. should be really good at multitasking. because isn't that what multitasking is. and it's like absolutely not that's just. not at all so I mean you yes you're more. distracted but people with. ADHD they they're slightly deficient in.

a really important ability in. multitasking which is quickly um. diminishing the the size of that. switching cost right where you go from. one task to the other you're um you're. if you're if you don't have ADHD. you're a lot better at picking up that. second task that that gap between. switching is shorter with ADHD it's. longer and then the other problem with. multitasking in ADHD is that um if you.

you become hyperaroused when you. multitask and hyperarousal leads to much. more elevated levels of stress in people. with ADHD which makes them even more. prone to error um and to frustration and. all sorts of stuff that makes. multitasking that much harder yeah and. uh good setup for our eventual um. hopefully coming soonish ADHD episode uh. we've already got the the stuff kind of. cold but that's it's a lot it's a big. episode yeah so uh I know people have.

been asking for it for a long time so. anyway that's that's coming down the. pike uh but um one thing that we have. roundly seen in study after study is. when you try to multitask or task switch. back and forth is that your work suffers. um not only are you taking longer to get. things done than you would if you did it. sequentially and by sequentially we mean. completing a task and then moving on to. the next right uh that not only are are. you taking more time when you think.

you're you're not you think you're. actually being more efficient maybe uh. if if you're you know um living a lie. like Mo like most of us are but you're. actually doing less uh the work is less. good and you're making more mistakes. along the way as well yeah did you say. that um it can take up to double the. time or more no yeah when you try to. multitask if let's say you're doing your. tasked with um making a paper airplane. and then shaving a bunny if you try to.

do those two things at the same time it. will actually take sometimes twice as. long when you try to do them at the same. time then it will if you make the paper. airplane and then shave the bunny you. try to do them at the same time twice as. long and then you're probably going to. give the bunny a bad haircut and your. paper airplane's going to have a a wonky. wing and it's not going to. fly sorry shaving the bunny sounds like. a very dirty euphemism I that didn't. even occur to me. you're a dirty old man these days you.

know that hey I'm just a a regular guy. who likes to shave the bunny you know. what I mean oh my. God oh. God see it's dirty right yeah I feel. like I'm blushing right now when when I. put it that way yeah so in addition to. it taking longer didn't you also say. that um the the work suffers as well uh. yeah they've shown on um in work uh. studies and stuff like that that you. know you can have up to a 40% loss in. productivity if you're at your computer.

at work and you're checking social media. and you're doing quick email checks and. a quick browse to look up where you know. uh Tom Petty was what high school he. went to like all that stuff takes a. couple of seconds but it compounds. throughout the day and you end up like. 40% less efficient and those are just. things that can happen at work like. there are actual real dangers when you. start putting people in automobiles. let's say right and Tom Petty went to. Gainesville High School in Gainesville.

Florida was it Gainesville High yeah. okay I knew he grew up there I just. didn't know if it was you know the. actual Gainesville High School yeah the. one or a rival school no so um driving a. car is is dangerous enough just even if. you're doing it right but since the the. um Advent of of smartphones the ubiquity. of smartphones people have gotten really. um really careless yeah dangerous yeah I.

mean like there's nothing more shocking. and angering to me than driving past. somebody who's just staring at their. phone like they're they're not even like. like looking up every once in a while. they're just star they're watching a. video on their phone it drives me crazy. and so I'm like of course crashes have. gone up a million percent there's no. actual good studies or data on how many. crashes are caused by people distracted. by their phones the best I could find. was a study from 2022 and it estimated.

that only 2 there's only been a 2.7%. increase since the Advent of smartphones. in crashes an extra 3,500 crashes each. year none of those 3500 is is Justified. or something to sneeze at but I would. have guessed it was way more than that. and um apparently there are more. dangerous things you could do than be. distracted by your phone some of which. we've been doing ever since we started. driving like eating while driving yeah.

or writing a letter long hand or reading. the newspaper shaving a bunny. uh yeah of course eating while. driving is very dangerous uh there was a. study in. 2021 uh where 50% of drivers say they. eat while they drive and I think a lot. of people uh eat and drink while they. drive and they think well that's not. really that big of a deal uh but the. nhtsa uh says that 65% % of near Miss. accidents are due to eating and drinking.

behind the wheel and if you're doing. that if you're eating or drinking behind. the wheel it increases your chances of. being in an accident by 80% that's. shocking that is shocking uh coffee they. said is the most dangerous thing to. consume while driving and this is one of. the favorite things I've read in a long. time other dangerous foods that they. listed are. soups tacos chili MH uh hamburgers. barbecue fried chicken and donuts.

especially jelly filled Donuts yeah soft. drink and chocolate but who's eating. soup while they drive I've not tried to. eat soup but I am guilty of trying to. eat chili while I was driving before. Yumi was like this is ridiculous you. can't get chil on road trips any longer. would you stop by Wendy's what was it. yeah it was was it yeah oh man I haven't. had Wendy's chili in so long uh yeah. this wasn't anytime recent but it was. you know it it was it was a it was a big. moment in our.

relationship yeah I mean I've had. moments where I've been on a road trip. and eating while I'm driving and been. like oh crap like I've swerved into the. wrong lane or something I'm like wait. what am I doing this is completely. especially if you're like you know if. you're trying to mayonnaise up a. hamburger or something like none of that. stuff is good to do while you're driving. no or like dunk some nuggets and sauce. or something like that that's a small. Target when you're going 80 miles an. hour you know yeah if you got a churro. and some sauce you're big trouble some. of these Foods they they um actually.

qualified like why they were on the. report like fried chicken they said you. a lot of people lick their fingers. afterward just depending on what you've. done with your fingers recently you do. not want to lick them especially while. driving but that's why Fried Chickens on. there jelly filed Donuts uh or powdered. because you can very easily drip on. yourself and all of a sudden you're. looking down like trying to clean. powdered sugar off of you I think coffee. was is on there just because so many.

people drink coffee while they're. driving that of course just. proportionately speaking it's going to. be one of the highest um food related or. crash related Foods you're probably. right and fried chicken I'm an expert. unless it's like a nugget or a. finger it's a it's a two-handed affair. generally uh unless you have like a. chicken leg if but when you're eating. something with fried chicken with bones. yeah it's a two-handed affair and you're. also it's not something you just bite. into like a cheeseburger cuz there are.

bones right it's it's a little more it. it it uh Bears more concentration yeah. you got a big old breast or a thigh you. have to like basically Palm it if you're. eating it onehanded and that's not how. you're supposed to eat fried. chicken oh man uh we should talk about. schooling a little bit because there's. obviously been a lot of studies about. multitasking and its effect on learning. and stuff like that uh and there are. studies that have found um that it uh.

will really affect your academic success. and if you have high levels of. multitasking uh in class or like while. you're trying to do homework you're it's. going to you know just like your job. it's going to have serious uh dilus. effects on your. grades it's true but depending on what. you do I I thought this was interesting. but also kind of intuitive as well um it. depends on what you're doing while. you're. multitasking of course the study found. that Facebook and text messaging um were.

related to lower or poorer academic. performances while um searching online. and emailing were less related to poor. academic performance and that makes. sense like if you're on Facebook or. you're texting you're probably not. getting to the bottom of the research. paper you're writing right yeah if. you're searching online or you're. emailing there's a much higher chance. that you are trying to find an answer. you are engaged in research so that. makes sense that's.

more this and this is a problem when. you're talking about. multitasking um like studies they very. easily uh conflate distractions and. multitasking uh and we do interruptions. yes we do multitask in a lot of a lot of. um on a lot of occasions because we are. being distracted right uh and so we have. to like kind of do something while we're. still doing the thing meant to be doing. um but they're not exactly the same.

thing although they do seem to kind of. be related we'll just call them uh. cousins kissing cousins even I saw a. step sibling but I like cousin better. okay yeah either one works frankly I. fall into this trap a lot because uh not. generally when I'm researching for for. our show I I tend to focus pretty well. uh except for maybe email because that. stupid ding comes through on my computer. which I need to shut down uh and we'll.

get to actually we can talk about it now. one of the things that you very much. should do if you have a problem with. with this kind of distraction is uh is. getting those notifications turned off. on your phone yeah uh I I don't like I. just they annoy me so I've always had my. phone ringer off and I get zero. notifications just because it bugs me. but especially if you have um issues. trying to focus like don't get notified. when someone comments on your Instagram.

post or or whatever there's. notifications for everything it seems. like yeah no for sure that's like one of. the first best steps you can do is start. turning off notifications turning your. ringer off when you're trying to. concentrate like just really basic stuff. that people are like no thank you I'd. rather suffer in every way shape and. form yeah but where I was going with. that is I'm pretty good um when I'm. doing this job but when I just when we. have one of our non-research or. recording days and it's sort of I call. them admin days when we're just doing.

all the other stuff that goes along with. the job I really bounce around on those. days between tasks for me the the like I. can pay attention generally while I'm. researching the the difficulty or the. challenge is I run into um remember that. that article from maybe the Atlantic in. 2009 by Nicholas Carr as Google making. us stupid oh yeah yeah he talks about we. don't read deeply any longer we're just.

superficial readers um I can fall into. that a lot like I have to force myself. to not just get the information I'm. looking for from an article but to. ingest it because there's always more. stuff that ties into other parts of. whatever topic we're researching in that. article and I I but so rather than just. going in harvesting what I'm looking for. and then moving on um or going in. Reading until I find something I need to. go look up because I don't know what. they're talking about so I open another. Tab and then I just move on Down the.

Line like that if I can just take the. time to ingest like each article I get. so much more out of it than I do when. I'm just kind of reading superficially. from tab to tab how do you read uh for. pleasure is is that easier for. you um I forced myself to to relearn how. to read for pleasure because I realized. like I was reading nothing but. non-fiction and it was always for work. all the time and so I started reading. short horror fiction again buying.

anthologies of horror fiction and um. it's been a great a huge wonderful like. change in my life because I I forgot how. much I like reading fiction again same. here man I'm reading an a a novel for. the first time in a long time wow and I. used to be nothing but I used to be. NBN oh yeah nothing but novels and then. went through a she 12y year period where. it was uh nbm almost nothing but Memoirs.

oh wow and autobiographies and. biographies but now I'm reading a novel. again and I'm just having so much fun I. was like oh man I used to love this and. I'm glad I'm getting back into it and I. can focus like we have family reading. time because you know we're we're uh. encouraging Ruby just to read more for. pleasure on her own so the whole it's. hard to say like hey go read and I'm. just going to sit here and scroll on. Instagram so we have our like our family. reading times where like 30 minutes. every night we all sit in the same room. and read our book together which is.

really good that's awesome yeah it's fun. very nice I think that's a great place. for a break we can let everybody just. sit there and think about the. wholesomeness of the the scene you just. described that's right okay we'll be. right. [Music]. back. [Music].

so I I don't know if you picked up on it. yet everybody but there are um there's. some low quality studies and even lower. Quality Reporting when it comes to to. something like multitasking it's bit of. a wild west still as far as our. understanding of what the brain's doing. and uh why we can't do it very well. we've got a general idea I think we've. kind of gotten that across but there's.

there's enough like leeway that people. can come along with stupid stupid. studies and the the media will report on. it breathlessly um and it'll turn out to. just be not really right at all when you. dive into the study yeah and I think a. lot of those at least in terms of this. research I thought came down to well. who's better at this men or women right. is that what you were uh thinking yeah. that's a huge part of it for sure. yeah because they've done all kinds of. studies of course because you know what.

what better time to pour money into. research than to pit men and women uh. versus one another in a challenge and a. competition right of of multitasking and. task switching right uh and there have. been a lot of studies that um do show. some differences uh a lot of them have. been very inconsistent a lot of the. studies haven't been great uh there have. been um studies that say that like men. are better at this there have been.

studies that say that women are better. at this so I don't even know what to. think um I think the answer is we don't. really know yet um probably so yeah yeah. there hasn't been like a really good. study or series of studies on it um I. also don't think it matters but who. knows if we're on a quest to understand. everything including ourselves and maybe. it is worth investigating um the the. problem with the study St that have been. done so far as they jump to massive. conclusions based on really poor data.

sometimes um there was this one that the. media was like this guy did it proved it. women are better at multitasking than. men and when you read into it you find. that the response time of women was. about 69% compared to 77% of men so men. had a 8% slower response time at a. multitasking task. and then to put the icing on the cake. they were worse at a key a lost key task.

and get this this is the Lost Key. task you take a blank piece of paper and. you show the researcher how you would go. find a key Imagining the blank piece of. paper is a field and the key in there. somewhere it's one of the most. objectively interpreted tests I've ever. heard of in my life and men were. apparently not as good at it or Drew. fewer lines than women did hence further.

supporting the idea that the that women. um were better at multitasking than men. because they could find a key in a field. better imaginarily. speaking is it is it like a maze no it's. a blank piece of paper and you show how. you would cross this field to look. everywhere for the key I saw an example. oh okay okay one an example from a woman. was just a series of lines back and. forth crossing the entire paper okay.

that's what I would do for some reason a. a man who had completely taken leave of. his senses made a a a a circle design. like a a a. swirl starting from the inside out and. then like missed some corners of the. paper so so clearly women are better at. multitasking than men yeah that is very. interesting and so subjective you're. right because like I don't know I feel. like if you got 100 people there would. be 100 different scribbles yeah exactly.

and then who are you the the researcher. to be like that's a pretty good strategy. for finding a key you. pass uh I have seen studies there was. one from pen medicine uh that found that. men on average or are better at. performing and learning a single. task uh whereas women are uh better with. their memory they have a better memory. and better social cognition skills uh. that suggest that they may be like um.

more apt to be better at multitasking so. that's another study that you can poke a. bunch of holes in. um the the study didn't do anything with. multitasking it was a brain Imaging. study that looked at the connectome how. the brains of men and women are. connected and found some differences in. the directions and the of the. connections men had more connections. from front to rear and rear to front. women had more connections from left to. right hemisphere um and and that's it.

that's what that's what it it found and. for some reason in the press releases. and the and what the media picked up. that was immediately translated and. extrapolated into women um being better. at at memory and social cognition and. men are better at navigating directions. that's the what I'm talking about like. you yeah yeah like I feel like this is. devolved into a like be careful what you. read kind of lesson but that's always a. good lesson to include yeah um as far as.

media goes you know we've talked a lot. about smartphones and stuff like that. it's sort of a different deal these days. because in the old days there would. usually be a media uh it's called an. exchange of media so um a a you know TV. comes along and replaces. radio uh something might replace uh. print um new equipment replaces the old. equipment but now things are um. technology has moved such that things. are being stacked uh since he admin to.

the internet and smartphones and TV and. gaming and texting and emailing like. things have stacked upon one another. such that uh they've done studies where. they found in the late 90s about 16% of. time uh media time was concurrent or. combined basically uh and in two I tried. to get something a little more up to. date than this but just six years later. 2005 that went up to 26% of media being. used together and I guarantee you that.

number is way way bigger now so I the. most recent I could find was in. 2011 and um it was up to 30% I mean. think about the difference between what. what technology you have in your house. in 2024 and what you had in. 2011 yeah I remember uh our old buddy uh. Luke Ryan remember Luke yeah he uh he. was a. working in he's like an executive in TV. and film and stuff and uh I remember.

this is very early on where he he talked. about the the multiscreen experience and. that they were all searching you know. how to crack that and I was like what do. you mean he's like you know like if. you're looking at your iPad while you. watch TV and it was so early in that. technology that I was like what like. that's so weird right and now I just. feel like even I fall into the Trap even. when I'm watching things I like of being. distracted by my phone which I I hate.

doing I really try to make an effort if. it's not just some throwaway dumb thing. I'm watching to to really like all right. pretend like I'm in a movie theater and. like put that thing away yeah but it. does take effort doesn't it it takes. conscious effort it does so um one of. the weird things about media. multitasking was what that's called when. you have multiple screens that you're. looking at at the same time getting. multiple inputs um makes you dumber well. there's no study that shows that. necessarily there there has been a study. that it's related to a lower um density.

of gray matter in the back of your brain. but that hasn't necessarily been shown. to be a bad thing and is that like the. the result of it we don't know um I. think the thing that interested me about. it is that there's a group of people who. were accidentally discovered in uh just. a few years back from some University of. Utah researchers um that are they're. considered super taskers. to where they they were they were part. of a study um of just finding out like.

differences in in um multitasking and. cost switching just a general study on. multitasking and they accidentally. discovered this small small group of. people who there was no effect on. performance when they were when they. were doing like performing multitasking. like they were just as good doing it at. the same time as they would have been. doing it sequentially and um in this one. article I read about it they were they. were kind of positing like you know why.

is this such a small population I think. they found like two and a half% out of. 400 people just a handful um do the math. yourself because I'm done uh were super. taskers and they they were they were. wondering if like there's such a small. population because it's a new newly. developing trait among humans that like. benefit yeah like because we're doing. things like exposing ourselves to so.

many different inputs of information at. once some of us are getting better at it. sooner than others and that maybe we'll. all be super taskers in a 100 or 200. years or something like that yeah that. makes a lot of sense I think I thought. so too uh so you know to finish up. earlier we said obviously to to turn off. those notifications and things like that. as far as like how to focus more how to. get a little bit better at this um try. and you know turn off the email. certainly turn off social media and.

things like that if you have to sit down. and accomplish like a um well not even. at the computer if you want to sit down. and read a book or do anything and. you're getting notifications that can. redirect you uh there is a method that. you found called the Pomodoro Technique. yeah uh created by Francisco cerillo and. basically there are are these um. pomodoros timer but you can you can find. them online if you want they're very. kind of clean and simple but you decide. at a task you set your little timer for.

25 minutes and you work on that task. until the little timer goes off uh you. record a little X there and take a break. for five minutes and then go back to. your work and then every time you have. four of those so uh 25 Time 4 however. minutes that is well plus the brakes too. well yeah plus of breaks then you take. your a longer break you take a 10-minute. break before you go back and apparently. it's a pretty good technique yeah so. during that time like all your emails.

off all your notifications are off your. ringers are off during that 25 minute. period you are heads down focusing on. that that task yeah if you're into time. management stuff that's a good way to. go totally but some people they're like. no who cares I love being distracted. with all that stuff yep those uh those. are women because they're better super. taskers than men apparently that sounds. like it uh if you want to know more. about multitasking then you can go read. all about it on the internet and see.

what you think of the quality of studies. that have been produced on it so far. maybe you'll agree maybe you won't. that's okay cuz we're all people and. since I said that baffling thing it's. time for listener. mail that's right uh this pretty. delightful email sometimes when we talk. about stuff uh we hear from actual. people that were involved in that stuff. which is great yeah and this one was uh. an actual student of the spruce. Elementary School in San Francisco that. uh was a part of that pioneering program.

in the. 1960s that we talked about in the pigmon. show so hey guys I'm a 66-year old man. retired Elementary uh music teacher from. California city councilman in uh Serana. Italy and an Alum of spruce Elementary. School in South San Francisco uh my. husband and I usually fall asleep to. your show and replay the show in the. morning catch what we missed when the. Sandman arrived last night I was on the. brink of Slumber and I heard Spruce. School I woke my snoring partner and.

made him replay the podcast from the. beginning and needless to say I was Wide. Awake the entire show and stayed up late. into the night in the morning hours. scouring the internet for pigmon in the. classroom I was flabbergasted to say the. least to learn that I was part of that. experiment also surprised to learn uh Dr. Lenor Jacobson is still with us at 101. years old uh I entered the Spruce School. as a kindergartener in the fall of 1962. uh the same year um actually mid year. when Dr Lenor Jacobson became principal.

uh Dr Jacobson left after my fifth grade. year in ' 68 my head is reeling at this. point guys I've ordered the book the. first edition coming from the UK I made. a mental list of my classmates who I'm. going to send to your podcast nice uh I. remember the testing we thought they. were fun actually I was a bit of a Class. Clown and always one of my teachers pets. my memory has always been sharp and can. remember several personal inter. interactions with Dr Jacobson in her. office uh you boys have given me a. wonderful assignment as I trip down.

memory lane and that is from the city. councilman of Serana Italy none other. than Bob Gori very nice Bob I love that. email like just he didn't realize what. he'd been through until he heard the. podcast it's just nuts to me I love it. amazing great to hear from you B yeah. for sure Bob and if you want to be like. Bob and just knock our socks off give it. a shot do it via email though wrap it up. spank it on the bottom and send it off. to stuff podcast iheartradio.com.

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