Misperceptions About Multitasking
Multitasking interferes more than enhances, whether you have ADHD or not.
This week a patient forwarded me an article promoting multitasking as one of the “super powers” of ADHD. Yet, at the same time, our president, who manifestly displays fairly severe ADHD, was having trouble managing to stay on top of the coronavirus pandemic, the economic meltdown, Black Lives Matter protests, and his own re-election efforts. Do Mr. Trump’s troubles with multitasking belie the claim that ADHD confers proficiency in this behavior?
Certainly, those with ADHD frequently engage in multitasking. In the last two years, every new ADHD patient that I have evaluated stated that they couldn’t watch a movie at home without simultaneously engaging in several other activities: checking texts, reading email, searching for background information on the internet, getting up and pacing around, hunting down recipes, or preparing food. But just because those with ADHD often multitask doesn’t indicate that they become good at it. After all, many schizophrenics walk down the street shouting their inner torments, but that doesn’t render them particularly effective public speakers. Practice doesn’t always make perfect.
Research indicates that humans can’t focus on two tasks simultaneously. We actually switch back and…
