Do you want to be a better student?
maybe you're just starting University and you want to give it your best shot
or you've been a student for a number of years and you know there's always room for improvement
Well, this is what these series are for
where we take psychological science and apply it on how to be an optimal student
My name is Saeid Chavoshi, I'm a doctoral student here in clinical psychology at York University
and I want to show you how you can take lessons from psychological science to
help you be the best student you can during your time at York University.
Now as a student you may be so busy that
you'll try to do many things at once
writing essays talking to your friends being on your phone
and this is what today's session is about: multitasking.
Or more importantly the Myth of Multitasking
So what is multi-tasking?
Well, for some of you it's taking notes while you're talking to your friends
trying to read your book while watching Netflix
but most of us these days, the way we multitask is with our phones
We check our phones of 150 times a day recent study showed
and often times when we check it, we are looking at our notification, text messages
and that could take up to a minute or two minutes
What is the harm in doing this type of multitasking?
First of all, there is no such a thing as "multitasking"
What we do when we multitask is called task-switching
When you take your attention away from
one activity and put it towards another activity.
So imagine you're working on an essay.
An essay lets say for your first year psychology course.
You have to remember the important topics that you're talking about
the people, the grading scheme how long this should be, your thesis
and as you shift your attention away to:
you've just checked your phone and you're about to text your friend about going to movies this weekend
you have to remember: the movies, the time, do you like this friend? why are you going out?
and every time the shift attention from one activity to another
we get rid of all these relevant information that was built up
It's like a sand castle that crumbles every time you switch from one activity to another
and this is not only time consuming it takes a lot of energy
so if you've ever tried to study while talking
to a friend after 10 minutes you were feeling tired.
Multitasking, or in other words task-switching, is energy consumptive. It is very tiring.
What's the real harm in task-switching?
It has a real hit on your productivity.
When you task-switch, research shows it takes you 40 percent longer
to do the same set of activities if you were to do them separately without interruption
that means it twice as long to do
something when you're multitasking
Also, you make a lot of mistakes.
Minor errors to major errors are abundant when
students try to write an essay or to study or to take notes
when they're doing number of activities at once.
So what have you covered so far
first there is no such a thing as multitasking. What we do is
task-switching taking our attention from
one task and redeploying or attentional
resources to another task this is tiring
time-consuming and we make more errors.
Most of us, we multitask using our phones
usually interruptions that take a minute or two
and these can really impede your
ability to learn. As a matter of fact there's been a ton of research on this lately
looking at students showing how when they have their laptops in the
classroom they can't study as well because they constantly distracted by going on
Facebook, or checking the news, or doing something that is unrelated to the lecture.
Similarly when students are told to turn off their cellphones in lecture a study
showed that their grades significantly improved.
What can we do with this knowledge
that this hurts your studying habits
let's begin by understanding why it's so
hard to stop multitasking
why do we do it in the first place
because the things we multitask with
whether Snapchat Facebook Instagram
these are appealing to our brains
they are rewarding
it's like candy, it's like a warm hug your brain releases the same chemicals
Dopamine for example, that you do when you're
anticipating pleasure and reward
things that are rewarding can become very addictive
it's very hard for us to not check our
phones when the notification signal is
flashing it's almost like it's taunting us
check me check me and most of us cannot
resist because every time we check our
phone or brain releases a chemical that
makes us feel good that makes us feel
interested.
What if you are not multitasking?
If you're sitting somewhere where the
person in front of you has a laptop open
and they are multitasking maybe
watching a hockey game, checking the news
while lecture is going on, a recent study
showed that impacts you negatively too
so not only does multitasking affect your
ability to learn it also impedes and hurts those around you
in other words it's bad for you, it's bad for
your neighbor and it's hard to stop
because the things we multitask with are
super addictive. So What can we do about that?
well I'll tell you in a moment
You know now multitasking is bad for you but maybe
you're thinking: "no I'm good at it, I've been doing it for so long, I know how to multitask. It makes me more efficient"
Well, you're not alone in thinking that
multitasking makes us feel like we're
doing more work because you feel busy
you're pushing your brain to its limits
It's like going to the gym and walking out
really sore you feel like you've done a
really good workout, but in fact, when you objectively look at the results
when you multitask even though you feel like
you're doing more work, you actually end up doing a lot less.
The real damage is not just in the hit in productivity
and your ability to learn, it's in fact a reduction in your ability to pay attention
that's right multitasking can damage your brain and your ability to focus
there was a recent study showing that
students who multitask a lot have a
reduced ability to pay attention, and get this: a reduced ability to multitask compared to students who don't do it
in other words this is not a skill you develop
this is a habit that makes you worse at
everything you do. If by now, you have
come to the conclusion that multitasking
is bad for you, it harms your ability to
study, to listen in lecture, to learn
material, and to write properly
what can you do about it? Well the
solution is chunking! It is a very simple
solution: to divide your studying time
into discrete amounts of time during which you don't let yourself to multitask
For example, if you're sitting
down to study, you tell yourself "I want to study for half an hour during which I can only do one activity and after that I can take a break"
as a matter of fact there's a technique
called the Pomodoro Technique which
works like this: there's a timer and you
study for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes you
have a five-minute break during which
you can go walk around check your phone
and you come back and do another 25 you
repeat this four times and then you get a 15 minute break
simple right? but this system is amazing
at helping students do better in school
There's a catch: in the Pomodoro
technique during one Pomodoro you can
only do one activity and you cannot
check your phone or check your email
until breaktime during that break time
do whatever you need to do, after break is over
make sure to turn your phone over or
better yet, put it in your bag so you don't have to look at it.
In the next module in the study hack series we're going to
talk about different ways where you can
modify your digital environment
including your laptop such that you're not as distracted.
Remember the maintake aways of this module are
multitasking doesn't work it doesn't exist
what we do is task-switching taking our
attention from one activity to another
this is harmful, takes a lot of energy,
and we end up being much less productive
but worst of all, we end up not learning and
retaining information when we do this so
every time you take your phone out in lecture
not only do you miss the 30 seconds
you're checking your notifications you
also missed the last few minutes because
they were not processed anymore they get
wiped out your mind, it's the real harm of the occasional glance to your cellphone
What can you do?
put the phone away! Or better yet, learn
to study in discrete amounts of time.
One useful technique is the Pomodoro
technique which we discussed and can
find links to it below. There are many
free apps that can do it for you on your
computer on your cell phone so you can
have a timer wherever you go, and best
of all, when you use an app like the
Pomodoro app on your phone you can track
your productivity and graph it. You can see
how many "pomodoros" you're doing in a
week how much time you're studying and
that can really help you see where you
stand relative to your courses because
one of the tools that can help us study
better is keeping track of how much we study,
something we call feedback which
we'll discuss in the future module thank
you for listening and check out the
resources below and don't forget to
check your study time and use the
Pomodoro Technique
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