During my freshman year of high school, I had a health teacher who taught us about multitasking. He argued that multitasking was bad for you as you were spreading yourself out too much and instead of letting yourself focus on one task well, you half-ass multiple tasks. Despite this, I’ll admit that whenever I do something like homework, or even work in class, I have a tendency to go on my phone to look at something. However, studies have shown just how harmful this is to the work you produce.
Travis Bradberry’s article Multitasking Damages Your Brain And Career, New Studies Suggest presents evidence and research that shows how multiple tasking reduces how efficient you are at completing your work, as well as the quality of the work you put out. The human brain can only truly focus on one task at a time, and spreading yourself out too much will lead to your work suffering. Despite this research supporting the contrary, there are people who still continue to act in ways that go against the idea of focusing on one task at once. In John Warner’s article “Rethinking My Cell Phone/Computer Policy”, he argued that using technology while doing work would allow for students to assess their full potential and widen their access to resources to help them as they work. He also argued that while students could be distracted by a device like an smartphone or computer, it’s benefits outweighs the possible problems the student could face.
Overall, when doing work, it’s best to put the phone down when you don’t need it and instead focus on the work you are creating, as it will help improve what you are creating in the long run.
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