Multitasking. We all do it. We all think we are good at it and we think it saves us time and energy.
Except it doesn’t. We are completely deluded in our belief and countless studies have supported the notion that we can only focus our attention on one thing at a time and the more we try to divide our attention the worse we get.
Unless, you are a supertasker.
Yes, such as creature does exist. However, in just the same way that I am unlikely ever to be a super model or a rock star (except in my own mind), supertaskers are not common. In fact only two per cent of the population have this ability.
Strayer and Watson from the University of Utah have made some fascinating discoveries about supertaskers that you can read about here. It just leaves me with a feeling of “if only” …
But just in the same way we can fool ourselves into thinking we can mulit-task, it’s important not to fool ourselves into believing we are supertaskers either.