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Many people will tell you they’re great multitaskers — who hasn’t seen that in a cover letter? However, the work of researchers like Victor M. González, Ph.D., Gloria Mark, Ph.D. and David Strayer, Ph.D. indicates otherwise.
Their studies in the areas of attention span and time management show that most of us are actually engaged in rapid task-switching rather than actual multitasking. True “supertaskers,” capable of simultaneously and fully paying attention to many things, are rare. In fact, when Strayer and his team asked 200 people to drive a vehicle while talking on the phone, doing math problems, and remembering a list of words, 97% failed to keep up with all of it.
The consequences of dividing your attention as a recruiter can be significant. Perhaps not as serious as crashing a vehicle, but more impactful than you might expect! Fortunately, there are tools and techniques to help recruiters avoid the pitfalls of trying to do it all at once.
The Costs of Multitasking
Studies like Strayer’s show that most people’s brains are just not wired for true multitasking. What we perceive as multitasking is actually redirection of our attention from one task to another in quick
