Women's multitasking myths

The ability to do several things at once is considered pure feminine featuredue to the fact that a woman has long had a lot of things that cannot be done in time sequentially, only in parallel: look after children, household, yourself, cook, wash, clean, work, etc.

And it is believed that multitasking is an advantage that brings greater productivity. However, scientists who have studied this issue have come to conclusions that contradict these stereotypes.

1. Not all women are multitasking, and men are not single tasks. There are about the same number of those among both genders who are capable of multitasking.

In a number of experiments women performed better on several tasks, in others - men, in still others - equally.

Accordingly, the stereotype about women's multitasking has taken root, because it fits well with others. gender stereotypes: for example, that a woman is responsible for all the household and children, while a man is busy only with "prey". Moreover, most often people who are extremely far from anthropology and history speak about such a life of people "since ancient times".

2. Anyone is basically a bad multitasker. That is, at a certain moment everything can, of course, go well: for example, you cook borscht and listen to an audiobook - one does not interfere with the other. But if you are driving, talking on the phone and painting your lips in your rearview mirror, you will be in trouble.

Multitasking overloads the brain, it has to constantly switch and keep a lot of information "in RAM".

If you simultaneously make a report, conduct personal and work correspondence, are distracted by children and advertising in the Internet, and even cook borscht - here the result is unlikely to be more effective than if you did business in order.

In fact, only 1% of people are really efficient at multiple tasks at once. The other 99% just think they can do that. But at the same time, their brain rushes about, is distracted, between cases, cannot concentrate. Every case suffers from this, because they receive less attention and less effort than is required.

In addition, remember your condition after a whole day of constantly doing several things at once. You are exhausted, irritated, tired, often unhappy with the result and yourself. Was it worth it? Or would it make you calmer and more productive if you had a good time allocation to focus on each task?

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