Do you have time for an easy quiz? Just answer this one question: Do you do better work after a good night’s sleep or after missing a full night of sleep? Easy, right?
Believe it or not, multitasking has the same impact on our work as losing a night’s sleep, according to trials run at King’s College London:
In 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King’s College London University, monitored the IQ of workers throughout the day.
He found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points — the equivalent to missing a whole night’s sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.
Why give up the the mental processing power of 10 full IQ points if you don’t have to? More than likely, multitasking gives students an emotional boost, even when it hurt their cognitive functions and impedes studying. At least that’s what researchers at Ohio State University found.
So skip what feels good and focus on what works. Unless you are part of the supertasker elite, unplug from distractions and work on one important task at a time. That’s just smart!
Mike Bergin