Great explanation, but iam wondering how about making something or doing something that is so often until you brain / system 1 ( Daniel Kahneman) automatically do it. Because i believe that brain could be trained / conditioned. Just like street artist could play more than 3 instrument at the same time. Thanks Dr, new subs and great channel !!
Depends on my mood and the task, but I'm fortunate enough to not have to do too many things I hate doing, and when I enjoy what I'm working on it's easy to slip into a sort of focus hole where I lose track of how long I've been working until I inevitably need to come up for air, sometimes hours later. When it's something I don't want to do, though, I usually focus on the deadline to push myself to get it done. That, of course, means I'm probably putting it off UNTIL the deadline, but so far that system has worked well enough for me. That said, I've been practicing monotasking for years, so it's partly just habitual at this point. The Pomodoro technique seems interesting, though: I'll keep it in mind if I need to focus on something larger.
Do you think this applies to things that require procedural learning too? For example, can you learn the guitar (not exactly read notes but learn chord shapes) while watching a TV show?
Yup, forming a new procedural memory will work best of you are doing one task at one time. Once you know some chords, you can probably jam while watching TV but if you're going to learn a new song or write one, you'll want to turn the TV off.
Dr Mattu, I have ADHD which makes me task-switch over and over and over within seconds of a minute sometimes. Multitasking is definitely something I do all the time but I do agree with you that multitasking really doesn't make me work any faster. The thing is, though it may sound like a cop-out, I do lack a great deal of control on my impulsivity which makes me constantly need to task switch or I'd be bored. What is your opinion in a case for people with ADHD? Also, whenever people study, there are those out there who support the usage of music to help people concentrate. Does this work?
+Jules S Good questions! A friend of mine has a nice overview of what ADHD is and is not here: www.cityneuropsych.com/blog/2015/9/25/adhd-is-not-a-disorder-of-attention Everyone, especially people with ADHD, have to learn how to deal with distractions. Part of that for ADHD can mean medication, strongly limiting distractions in your environment, learning how to structure your work so you can build momentum, knowing when you need to take a break (and setting alarms to make sure the break doesn't go too long), and more. There are some great self-help books on this topic and some good resources on the internet. Music *can* be helpful for some people. I always listen to instrumental music to help me focus when I work (because it blocks out distractions in the environment). However, for others, it is distracting. It really depends on you, the type of music, and the type of work you have to do. The more familiar you are with the music or work, the better they should work together. I hope that answers your questions! :-)
I am the type who easily get bored when doing work in a quiet space so i either do my tasks at cafe or while listening to music. Is that a bad habit? How to get over it?
As long as the music helps focus you and doesn't distract you from your work, it should be okay. I listen to instrumental music when I work because it filters out distractions. But I can't listen to vocal music - that becomes a "multitasking" situation for me. The vocals become a distraction.
Remember when you first learned how to play a violin? You had to learn how to use the chin rest, hold a bow, play notes, maintain your posture? Back then you couldn't do all of those things at once. You had to focus on them one at a time. With practice, a lot of those tasks became more automatic. That's what a lot of complex tasks like a musical instrument, driving a car, or filming a TH-cam video are like. But when the task becomes more complicated, like learning vibrato or playing two strings at one time, everything slows down. That's what task-switching is like. We can get pretty good at doing things automatically, until something changes or gets more complicated.It's in those moments we can see the limits of our brain's ability to do multiple things at once.
Ali I love this video on multitasking! I have told many people you are not actually multi tasking! You know who I learned that from? Jim during my interview. 😀 Good times!
Thanks so much Michelle! Jim was the first person to teach me this as well! I also still remember what he told me during my interview at NASA - "always put black text against a white background - it's the combination that's easiest for people to read."
+Giovanni Vieira In 2014 I made 4 trips to Florida - twice to Orlando and twice to Miami :-) None planned as of yet for 2016, but definitely will return at some point.
Every time I solve a complex calculus problem I temporarily go blind, deaf, lose my sense balance and fall off my chair. OK, not really. Videos like this can be a misleading. The reason why we cannot perform multiple complex motor activities is because our brains are already multitasking to a high degree... continuously. What we refer to as a single task, such as driving, is really a combination of multiple complex tasks. Our brains are are constantly rendering a single image from 2 different optical organs. Vibrations within our ears are continuously converted to what we interpret as a horn or the guy screaming expletives at us. Also, the amount of information from our skin that is processed daily and nightly is mind boggling, literally. All of this information, plus more, is then tied together and we respond to the activity as if it were one task, but even a seemingly simple reaction is more complex than people realize. Here's a challenge. Try to turn off your vision (eyes open) or hearing (no hands allowed) while watching this video. Can you turn off your brain's reaction to temperature, pressure, pain, and texture from your skin? The question really should be whether or not we can turn OFF some of these automatic tasks so that we can be hyper-focused on a more complex motor activity. The answer is 'no', but we can greatly reduce input from certain senses. When we look at the actual complexity of so called simple tasks, it's kind of crazy to add even more multitasking to what is already fairly impressive multitasking.
+Kath Cohn the second half of my video highlights the skills needed to make progress on tasks, specifically to be able to focus on one thing at one time and minimize distractions.
Check out the WOOP method for goal setting. NPR covers this on a great episode of Hidden Brain: www.npr.org/2016/05/10/477379965/woop-there-it-is-four-steps-to-achieve-your-goals.
Do you need to know, a SPECIFIC goal, in order to satisfy me? I was bringing up my point about, PROGRESS, because I think that is very important. It's hard for me to name, a SPECIFIC example, of what I am talking about, besides being in school.
Great explanation, but iam wondering how about making something or doing something that is so often until you brain / system 1 ( Daniel Kahneman) automatically do it. Because i believe that brain could be trained / conditioned. Just like street artist could play more than 3 instrument at the same time. Thanks Dr, new subs and great channel !!
A lot of complex actions can become automatic...until you have to think about them. Then, they require your focus. Thanks for watching!
The Pomodoro Technique helps me stay focused. What do you do when you need to get stuff done?
+The Psych Show That's awesome I use the Pomodoro Technique too!
+Ella Mari I use it EVERY SINGLE DAY! It helps me break down my all or nothing thinking traps.
Wow! I only use it during my revisions hahah.
+Ella Mari Emails...that's a big use case for me.
Depends on my mood and the task, but I'm fortunate enough to not have to do too many things I hate doing, and when I enjoy what I'm working on it's easy to slip into a sort of focus hole where I lose track of how long I've been working until I inevitably need to come up for air, sometimes hours later. When it's something I don't want to do, though, I usually focus on the deadline to push myself to get it done. That, of course, means I'm probably putting it off UNTIL the deadline, but so far that system has worked well enough for me. That said, I've been practicing monotasking for years, so it's partly just habitual at this point. The Pomodoro technique seems interesting, though: I'll keep it in mind if I need to focus on something larger.
Do you think this applies to things that require procedural learning too? For example, can you learn the guitar (not exactly read notes but learn chord shapes) while watching a TV show?
Yup, forming a new procedural memory will work best of you are doing one task at one time. Once you know some chords, you can probably jam while watching TV but if you're going to learn a new song or write one, you'll want to turn the TV off.
What about videos or music as white noise in the background though?
I love your show! You make the videos so much enjoyable. I love the music you put into it. I love your gestures. Great work!
Thank you so much for this! I am currently multitasking and surprisingly I haven't completed anything
Dr Mattu, I have ADHD which makes me task-switch over and over and over within seconds of a minute sometimes. Multitasking is definitely something I do all the time but I do agree with you that multitasking really doesn't make me work any faster. The thing is, though it may sound like a cop-out, I do lack a great deal of control on my impulsivity which makes me constantly need to task switch or I'd be bored. What is your opinion in a case for people with ADHD?
Also, whenever people study, there are those out there who support the usage of music to help people concentrate. Does this work?
+Jules S Good questions! A friend of mine has a nice overview of what ADHD is and is not here: www.cityneuropsych.com/blog/2015/9/25/adhd-is-not-a-disorder-of-attention
Everyone, especially people with ADHD, have to learn how to deal with distractions. Part of that for ADHD can mean medication, strongly limiting distractions in your environment, learning how to structure your work so you can build momentum, knowing when you need to take a break (and setting alarms to make sure the break doesn't go too long), and more. There are some great self-help books on this topic and some good resources on the internet.
Music *can* be helpful for some people. I always listen to instrumental music to help me focus when I work (because it blocks out distractions in the environment). However, for others, it is distracting. It really depends on you, the type of music, and the type of work you have to do. The more familiar you are with the music or work, the better they should work together.
I hope that answers your questions! :-)
Thank you so much! That's very helpful. And I will check out that link!
I am the type who easily get bored when doing work in a quiet space so i either do my tasks at cafe or while listening to music. Is that a bad habit? How to get over it?
As long as the music helps focus you and doesn't distract you from your work, it should be okay. I listen to instrumental music when I work because it filters out distractions. But I can't listen to vocal music - that becomes a "multitasking" situation for me. The vocals become a distraction.
I am from Gujranwala, Pakistan
You are Good you teach psychology in very easy wording this video is best in your youtube playlist.
Thank you for your kind words and for watching!
i play violin and i just wanna know if it is considered as a multitask.
Remember when you first learned how to play a violin? You had to learn how to use the chin rest, hold a bow, play notes, maintain your posture? Back then you couldn't do all of those things at once. You had to focus on them one at a time. With practice, a lot of those tasks became more automatic. That's what a lot of complex tasks like a musical instrument, driving a car, or filming a TH-cam video are like. But when the task becomes more complicated, like learning vibrato or playing two strings at one time, everything slows down. That's what task-switching is like. We can get pretty good at doing things automatically, until something changes or gets more complicated.It's in those moments we can see the limits of our brain's ability to do multiple things at once.
The Psych Show Wow i never even thought of that, it makes sense though. I haven’t learned vibrato yet, lol its harder than it looks.
Ali I love this video on multitasking! I have told many people you are not actually multi tasking! You know who I learned that from? Jim during my interview. 😀 Good times!
Thanks so much Michelle! Jim was the first person to teach me this as well! I also still remember what he told me during my interview at NASA - "always put black text against a white background - it's the combination that's easiest for people to read."
Ali do you plan to ever come to Florida?
+Giovanni Vieira In 2014 I made 4 trips to Florida - twice to Orlando and twice to Miami :-) None planned as of yet for 2016, but definitely will return at some point.
I hope you manage to come to Florida.
Every time I solve a complex calculus problem I temporarily go blind, deaf, lose my sense balance and fall off my chair. OK, not really.
Videos like this can be a misleading. The reason why we cannot perform multiple complex motor activities is because our brains are already multitasking to a high degree... continuously. What we refer to as a single task, such as driving, is really a combination of multiple complex tasks. Our brains are are constantly rendering a single image from 2 different optical organs. Vibrations within our ears are continuously converted to what we interpret as a horn or the guy screaming expletives at us. Also, the amount of information from our skin that is processed daily and nightly is mind boggling, literally. All of this information, plus more, is then tied together and we respond to the activity as if it were one task, but even a seemingly simple reaction is more complex than people realize.
Here's a challenge. Try to turn off your vision (eyes open) or hearing (no hands allowed) while watching this video. Can you turn off your brain's reaction to temperature, pressure, pain, and texture from your skin? The question really should be whether or not we can turn OFF some of these automatic tasks so that we can be hyper-focused on a more complex motor activity. The answer is 'no', but we can greatly reduce input from certain senses. When we look at the actual complexity of so called simple tasks, it's kind of crazy to add even more multitasking to what is already fairly impressive multitasking.
great video, Doctor!
In fact, even computers that appear to be multitasking are merely task switching. Our brains are computers after all!
Anyone else is reading the comments and watching the video at the same time???
This video is very good
+SUBBANNA R thanks for watching!
Your videos are really good but you speak so slow that I have to select 1.75x speed to make you sound like a "normal" TH-camr 😂
I'm watching this video whilst eating my choclate
This video talks about Multitasking, which is awesome, but does not talk about ANOTHER thing, PROGRESS.
I mean, this video says that to make progress, you can't multitask, which is great, but does not talk about HOW to progress.
+Kath Cohn the second half of my video highlights the skills needed to make progress on tasks, specifically to be able to focus on one thing at one time and minimize distractions.
Oh, ok, but I was talking about PRODUCTIVE progress. In otherwards, progress on a GOAL.
Check out the WOOP method for goal setting. NPR covers this on a great episode of Hidden Brain: www.npr.org/2016/05/10/477379965/woop-there-it-is-four-steps-to-achieve-your-goals.
Do you need to know, a SPECIFIC goal, in order to satisfy me? I was bringing up my point about, PROGRESS, because I think that is very important. It's hard for me to name, a SPECIFIC example, of what I am talking about, besides being in school.