A modern brain at work
As I write right now, I am concentrating on the cognitive science of mindfulness, but am multitasking through the article in an attempt to increase productivity.
I multitask and believe that I am competent, making the most of every moment. I’m sitting in my black leather chair in my home office, watching “Everybody Loves Raymond” on my iPad, my hands typing on the Macbook Pro, my ears listening to Ted Talk on my iPhone headphones. The kids are getting ready for school in the hall outside my office, and Mom is raising her voice, yelling.
Moments of silence without noise and distraction are rare, and with four cute children, a lovely wife, teaching, reading, and writing, I foresee less attention in my future. My mind is constantly fragmented between many tasks and intrusions. Mindfulness, or extended periods of quiet reflection, are priceless because they focus us on the present moment. Multitasking is the exact opposite, and our brains react to each environment in unique ways.
Myth of multitasking
Recent research from cognitive science reinforces the human need for mindfulness throughout the day, and many scholars suggest that working on one task at a time trumps multitasking. While we are tempted to think of ourselves as efficient worker bees, we actually accomplish much less when managing multiple jobs simultaneously.
Scientific proof of this was reported by The New York Times in the article “The power of concentration” by Maria Konnikova, where she explores the science of our brain in the workplace, suggesting that drastic changes are needed. It claims that we damage our efficient, one-way minds when we constantly multitask.
To illustrate her ideas, Konnikova invokes the image of Sherlock Holmes when she receives news of an exciting new case. He sits quietly in his comfortable chair, pipe smoke rises, silently goes over the details while Watson is eager for immediate action. The brilliant Holmes is attentive, in the present moment as he concentrates intensely on the case, and we see the benefits of this meditation as he solves the case with astonishing mental feats.
Cognitive science and mindfulness
Konnikova suggests that we should emulate Holmes’s approach, working on a task and allowing ourselves moments of mindfulness. He states that Holmes’ regulates his emotional well-being and that:
His approach to thinking captures exactly what cognitive psychologists mean when they say mindfulness … But mindfulness goes beyond improving the regulation of emotions. A mindfulness exercise can also help with that plague of modern existence: multitasking. Of course, we would like to believe that our attention is infinite, but it is not. Multitasking is a persistent myth.
Two neuroscientific truths provide hope and confirmation. Konnikova reviews several studies conducted in the last two years that reveal how neurons in our brain function: first, neurons, neural pathways, and brains possess plasticity or the ability to adapt to new situations, and second, attention alters our brains in positive ways, making them more efficient.
The first point refutes the centuries-old belief that our minds are frozen after age 21, unable to change, adapt, or grow. Instead, scientists discovered that our minds are plastic throughout our lives, meaning that they continually adapt and reprogram. So at your age, whatever it is, you can still change your brain.
The second point reveals the power of quiet moments and reflection during the busy day, while also illustrating the falsehood of multitasking myths. Neuroscientists offer evidence that our brains work more efficiently in single and relatively fast tasks, and the structure of the neural pathways will adapt to work better if we change our habits. Quiet moments of mindfulness reinforce these altered neural pathways, and we can eliminate brain structures created by chronic multitasking.
We should not be discouraged by the news that we are working inefficiently because neuroscience brings new hope and our brains are not permanently damaged. We can exercise my mind to reshape it, train it to be an efficient single-task machine again.