Blog #227--Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking is a popular refrain these days. Many people pride themselves on their ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. Implied if not stated is the assumption we are conscious of these multiple interactions as they occur. That is a misnomer.

It is true we must often keep track of multiple tasks at the same time. A mother must watch her baby while answering a phone. A baseball manager must juggle myriad variables to remain competitive. A person writing an article for the Internet may get interrupted by a spouse seeking help or advice and then return to the article with the same train of thought as before. The list of examples is practically endless.

But that doesn’t mean we can be conscious and in the moment for two or more things at once. That is not how our brains work. I first learned this as a youngster watching Art Linkletter’s television shows back in the 1950s. He liked playing games with his audiences. One game featured him giving a prize to a person capable of telling him when 30 seconds was up while being asked personal questions.

Contestants trying mentally to count out 30 seconds would have trouble answering simple questions like name and home town. If the questions took priority, few people correctly identified the time. Our brains are wired to think of one thing at a time.

We sometimes use this to our advantage. For instance, if we want to give a baby a vaccine, we distract it so it won’t anticipate the pain. Veterinarians use a twitch, a loop of tightened rope around a horse’s upper lip, so it will think of the lip pain instead of the large needle being inserted into the rump. Magicians are masters at getting people to focus on one thing and not another.

Complicating things, our brains can’t always identify what is happening accurately. Heart attacks are felt in the left arm, a tooth or some part of the body other than the area of the heart. Pain is often called “referred pain” because its apparent location is different than the actual site of the pain. I have experienced this with degeneration of my left sacroiliac joint, which produced pain on the right side of my back and down my right leg.

If we are driving a car, we can’t focus on the road and possible upcoming problems if we are distracted. This phenomenon has become especially noticeable since the advent of cell phones. Most people drive more erratically while talking on the phone. Accidents while texting have become common enough to issue warnings and sometimes laws against the practice since we must also look away from the road while texting.

Granted, we are often capable of driving without being consciously focused on the road at all times. Once it has mastered the task, our subconscious is capable of doing much of the work without our conscious awareness. Those who have driven home safely while too drunk or stoned to remember the trip can vouch for this. But accidents are more likely to happen when we lose focus too frequently.

There are a number of times when it appears we are doing two things at once. For instance, playing piano, string instruments, percussion and wind instruments such as clarinets, flutes, oboes and bassoons requires both hands doing different tasks. With sufficient practice, one can become an expert at this. But in all these cases, the common denominator is the music, which both sides of our brains are copying or creating.

The piano is a highly complex instrument, but it is made easier by the fact our left and right brains have opposite tasks to perform. The right hand, controlled by the left hemisphere of our brains, uses its little finger for the highest notes, while the left hand, ruled by the right brain, uses its little finger for the lowest notes. The two hands even have different notes to copy: base clef for the left hand and treble clef for the right hand. And the notes on the two clefs do not coincide (the lowest line of treble clef is an “E,” while the lowest line of base clef is a “G”). Each side of the brain operates independently with the two sets of music, but its overall purpose is one piece of music.

We can also learn, with practice, to rub one hand in a circle on our belly while simultaneously patting our head up and down with the other hand. These are opposite behaviors, and they are much easier if we are patting with our right hand and rotating our left hand. The left brain is best at producing back-and-forth, straight line actions, while the right brain is best making circular movements. Some people may experience the opposite phenomenon, so find out which way works better for you. Then try to do the opposite with each hand. You may with time learn to be efficient using both methods, but unless you are completely ambidextrous, you are likely to find one way much more difficult to accomplish than the other.

There are a number of simple tasks we can complete with our hands and/or feet doing two different things simultaneously. But our conscious minds must let go of their focus on one activity to get a good view of the other. If we are playing music or any number of other tasks with both hands, we are able to do both best when we have gained some expertise with frequent practice and then let go of our focus on both tasks to let them perform without our conscious control. We can then jump in if necessary to help out if problems arise.

Every sport I’ve attempted in my life has required the same approach. For example, a baseball player in a slump begins to press, with a resulting muscle tightening and loss of confidence. He or she then begins to question methods and looks for changes to get better results. But trying to make things happen with our minds creates a worse slump. Only when we relax, let go of our fear of failure and trust our instincts to do the job as practiced will we see improvement.

I learned this lesson as a youngster playing ping pong. One day I was having a terrible time playing against a friend with equal ability. Everything I did backfired. The harder I tried, the worse it got. So I stopped trying to force things, preferring to limit my game to returning every shot sent my way. My fortunes reversed since my friend started making more mistakes than I, allowing me to win some games and regain my confidence.

Most of us are capable of carrying out multiple functions during our daily activities, but we are not in conscious control of two or more of our activities simultaneously. Our brains are simply incapable of focusing precisely on more than one thing at a time. This is an important distinction.

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