New Delhi, February 06, 2025.
With so much happening around us, multitasking may feel like the only way to gain control and make sense of everything. In the eternal race against time, you feel like you are always running out of time. Multitasking seems like a go-to solution for this.
Dr Ajit Dandekar, HoD, Psychiatry and Mental Health at Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital in Mumbai, shared a detailed breakdown of the science behind multitasking, when to draw the line and more. He called multitasking a ‘double-edged sword.’
Multitasking hampers efficiency and the quality of the output. Multitasking involves doing two tasks or more and going back and forth. Dr Dandekar explained how this switching costs efficiency.
He said, “Multitasking is a double-edged sword with mixed results depending on the situation and tasks involved. Several studies have shown that one may not be able to perform with similar efficiency and accuracy due to ‘switching costs’—the psychological effort, needed to reorient and adapt for the new tasks. It’s true that multitasking has become a necessity in modern professional environment, but at the same time, it can lead to cognitive overload and fatigue
