Self-Study on Multitasking

Growing up in a poor family in Africa, I quickly learned the importance of making the most
of every opportunity. My parents worked hard to provide for us, but resources were often scarce. As
a student, I am no stranger to the pressures of balancing academics with other responsibilities—be it
helping around the house, looking after younger siblings, or working part-time jobs to support my
education. In this reflection, I will explore the concept of multitasking, its impact on my life, and
how I navigate it as a student coming from a challenging background.
Multitasking is becoming more and more common in today's culture. Many believed that
a skilled multitasker would make a successful professional and that this would be a skill that future
professionals will possess in the years to come. Like most people, as a poor boy from a village,
from a young age, I was taught to be independent. My family couldn’t afford extra help, so I had
to learn how to do many things at once—cleaning the house, studying, and sometimes even
working to contribute to household expenses. My parents, though hardworking, were often unable
to be present to guide me through every step of my education. This meant I had to teach myself,
managing schoolwork alongside other tasks, with little room for distractions. The worst of it all, I
have to be reading my notes, chatting on whatsap and facebook and always taken care of my shop.
As recent research in cognitive science have shown that there are decrease in performance

when dividing your attention between two different tasks at hand (Junco, 2012), The implications

of multitasking on cognitive function and academic achievement are examined in "Multitasking"

by Reynol Junco, especially as it relates to students' use of technology. Junco talks on how using

social media while studying, for example, might cause concentration and productivity to drop. He

is aware of how human attention spans are limited and how learning outcomes are affected by

frequent task switching. With the goal of assisting students in improving their academic

performance and general well-being, Junco promotes time management techniques and single-

tasking through research findings. Junco’s study analyzed 1,839 college students and their

multitasking habits such as accessing Facebook and texting during classes, and how these habits

influenced their GPA. It was found that the more you use these social technologies the worse your

GPA was. He advocates for strategies that promote single-tasking and better time management

among students, emphasizing the importance of focused study habits for enhancing both

educational achievement and mental health.

 “In a world obsessed with multitasking, we often forgot that true mastery comes from

single – minded focus, that we can achieve our greatest work” This quotes brought me to my toes

to swim and try to control my multitasking habits. I finally arrived with this came up with a plan

to try to focus on one task at a time giving myself between 60-75 minutes at each task before

taking a 10-20 minutes break to reset and then getting back at what I was doing or start a different

task. During the period allotted, I chose to practice monotasking at home and that on the first day

I decided to only use 75 minutes only on household chores such as cleaning the compound. I then

incorporated short break of 30 minutes to main energy and focus throughout the day. During the

short break I relax and read my books and if there is an assignment I use this period to do it. After

assignment and learning my course materials, I use 30 minutes I would allow myself to get onmy

phone and scroll through Instagram, read the news, or answer any text messages that I might have

received. I also try to leave my phone on airplane mode while driving or riding my bike, so I could

focus completely on the traffic. At first, I was going to follow this plan for a whole day writing

down everything that I had accomplished during that day and in how long did it take for me to

complete all the tasks I had to complete, and on another day I would come back to my old habits

and also write down everything just like I did on the day of the experiment, so then after both days

I could compare the results of both days.

I chose to begin the experiment with a typical day, going about my daily routine, and taking

notes at the end. I soon discovered that every task I had to complete consumed a significant amount

of my energy, and that I would grow bored with them all and stop in the middle to engage in

something more engaging and focused, such as reading the news, talking to friends, browsing

Instagram, or watching Netflix series

After five days of following the plan, I understood what would change, and the experiment's

outcomes were astounding. It dawned on me that I had completed two my ASU assignment.

After that, I took a brief break, but I had to make myself take it because I was "in the zone" and
merely wanted to continue working. I could read about the protests taking place in my nation,

browse facebook and whatsap, and respond to a few texts during the interval.. The deeper I got in

the day the more I realized that nothing new would appear on my whatsap and there wouldn’t be

any relevant messages from friends because I thought they might also be busy like I do. I was

impressed by how my productivity had increased in that day, sometimes I spent hours trying to

complete a short discussion board, so just by focusing on one task without any distractions I could

get onedone in minutes.

Additionally, I also tried to stop using my phone while taken care of my shop especially

when the place become filled with customers buying different things. I couldn’t really notice any

difference between engaging on multitasking or not while marketing, this is because there might

be a probability of selling products at cheaper price without knowing, probability of customers

stealing the products and other effects, Even though I know that multitasking reading or selling

can lead to lost in profit margin. I remembered when a I sold a product to a customer without

taken my money when I was fully engaging in chat on whatsap and the same time with a

headphone listening to local songs.

This self-study had as its main goal analyze how I would respond to different stimulus, analyzing

a day on which I would just be the “normal me” with my natural multitasking habits and another

day on which I would follow a plan that would make me take one task at a time during a pre-

determined period of time with some breaks in between. When navigating and discussion had on

Chapter 5, I saw he harmful effects of divided attention. Divided attention is a form of multitask

and it means that we are not really focused on none of the tasks we are just playing with our

attention, which means that our productivity tends to be decreased by this divided attention. The

experiment and the monotasking plan revealed that I can be more productive and efficient and could be

more interested in a particular work when there is no internal and external distrution and that when I

stopped the whatsap messaging and only concentrated on my selling of products things and the marketing

went well and customers were served well.

 References

Farmer, T. A. (2018). Cognition, 10th edition. Wiley.

Junco, R. (2012). In-class multitasking and academic performance. Computers in Human

Behavior, 28(6), 2236–2243. [Link]

Junco, R. (2013). The relationship between frequency of Facebook use and student engagement.
Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 895-901. [Link]

Junco, R., & Cotten, S. R. (2012). No A 4 U: The relationship between high school students'
internet use and academic performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(7-2724.
[Link]

The magic of doing one thing at a time. Harvard Business Review. (2014, July 23). Retrieved
November 09, 2024, from [Link]