In 90s and early 2000s, with the rise of PDA’s and other personal productivity devices, we embraced multitasking as a way to keep pace with the new speed of business.
We highlighted our ability to multi-task on resumes, and bragged about how many assignments we were able to complete at once. Multitaskers were seen as efficient, high-performing employees.
Now we know the truth: extensive research has shown that multitasking has a major downside. It slows us down, we make more mistakes, and it wears us out both mentally and physically. And yet we keep on multitasking? Why?
Could it be because we underestimate the true cost of multitasking?