Can You Multitask Effectively?

The ability to multitask effectively might vary depending on personality type and the ability to focus. Research has found that people who test high for personality traits such as impulsiveness and risk-taking are often the least effective at multitasking, but they also are the most likely to multitask and to think they are good at it. Researchers believe this might be because people who have impulsive personalities are easily distracted and unable to focus on one task at a time, leading them to multitask. People who are able to focus on the task at hand have been found to be the most effective at multitasking, which researchers concluded was because those people were not multitasking out of distraction but rather with the intent to be more productive.

More about multitasking:

• It is estimated that 10% of the people driving cars at any given time are talking on the phone.


• Research has found that it takes an average of two minutes for college students to move from one task to another when multitasking.


• People who multitask the most often might be more likely to report having social problems, which researchers believe might be because of a decreased ability to focus on other people during interactions.