What is multi-tasking? The term originated in 1960ties computer science to describe the performance of multiple tasks by switching the processor between these tasks. Switching creates the illusion of simulteneity. However, each switch is associated with a cost – what cost? Each task has a context, for instance, the objectives, the variables, the values and where it was stopped in the process. This information (context) must be reacquired before restarting the task – obviously – otherwise the computation is non-sense.

With too many tasks, and too many switches, context switching is costly and the dark side of multi-tasking.

Human multi-tasking is surprisingly similar and, yes, it has a dark side of wasting our cognitive capital. Every time we switch our attention from one task to the next without completing the task, we incur the cost of context switching and invoke the Zeigarnik effect, which is a memory load in our brains for unfinished tasks (more on that later). How does that make us feel? In power, on top of things, finally done? Hardly …. We are drained, confused, tired and frustrated.

The more unfinished tasks we have that require our attention in order to be completed, the more cognitive capital we pay to context storage and switching. The question is, how can invest our cognitive capital wisely in a world that demands task switching and advocates technology to support it. Please, check back tomorrow for answers.