The myth of multitasking

In our busy lives, multitasking seems like an efficient way to get things done, but there is a cognitive cost to trying to do everything at once.

- CARROL BAKER

Have you ever been on the phone with your boss, simultaneously shovelling banana into your toddler’s mouth, while wildly gesturing for your pre-teens to stop pelting each other with cornflakes? I’m sure it’s not just me.

The concept of multitasking is a modern-day malady that has convinced us we can “do it all” … all at the same time. Parents often multitask out of sheer desperation — there isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done, so they double or even triple up on tasks. We’ve been conditioned to wear this level of busyness like a badge of honour; you might even say the ability to multitask is considered a skill, an efficient way of doing things in the 21st century, but it isn’t.

Reliance on multitasking often comes at a great cost, leading to frayed tempers, stress and eventual burnout. Some might argue it goes hand in hand with caring for children. While you’d love to sit and play Barbies with your offspring, the dog isn’t going to feed itself, and the clothes (sadly) won’t magically jump out of the washing machine and trot out to the clothesline.

Lyn Craig, a professor of sociology and social policy at the University of Melbourne, has studied multitasking in the context of gender differences. It will hardly come as a surprise to learn women do it far more often than men.