Multitasking works in many different ways in my life. At times I feel as though I am a master of it. On the field hockey field, I can be doing three different things at once. I can be dribbling the ball, calling out to my teammates, and also scanning the field at the same time. I am not sure how I do it, but it very much happens and it is very much multitasking. On the other hand, multitasking works against me. There will be times that I am having a conversation with someone, while also texting someone back. My brain does not work in a way where I can be engaged in two different conversations at once. Because of this, I typically end up texting back a message that makes absolutely no sense as to what the person had said, but it was what I was talking about out loud in conversation.
Although I was aware of how multitasking worked in my life, I never thought of it as something that was harmful. Travis Badberry goes in depth on how studies suggest that multitasking damages the human brain. He explains that multitasking reduces a persons efficiency and performance because our brains are wired to focus on one thing at a time. This made sense to me because every time I try to do my homework, while also sitting in a room with my friends or watching a show, the work takes me three times as long as it would have if I had solely focused on my work. This has made me really think about how often I multitask on a day-to-day basis and how harmful it has been to me.
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