Multi-tasking? Or Not.

"Get off your phone (or iPad)!"
"How long have you been on there?"
"I can't talk to you when you are looking at your phone"
"You can't do two things at once and do them well!"

Are you in my house? Those are things that I say on a daily basis to my children and honestly, my husband too. Do you say those things to your mentee? Do they get in the car and immediately pull out their phone to check their texts or social media? Or even worse- start snapping pictures on Snapchat? Those goofy pictures that make no sense to me? All while trying to carry on a conversation with you?

What do we do? What is good for them? Can we effectively do two things at once? One that is physical and one that’s cognitive? Or do two cognitive things at once?

There is some research out there that may be helpful. I always hear people say they are good at multi-tasking. Is this true? “Multi-tasking is the concurrent operation by one central processing unit of two or more processes.” (https://incident-prevention.com/ip-articles/multitasking-vs-switch-tasking-what-s-the-difference). If you are doing a physical task that you have done very, very often and you are very good at, then you can do that physical task while you are doing a mental task. So if you have learned to walk then you can walk and talk at the same time. However, [cognitive] multi-tasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your conscious brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully. (http://mass-plc.com/blog/419/multitasking-vs-task-switching)

Most of the time what we call multi-tasking is really task switching, not multi-tasking -- The term multi-tasking is actually a misnomer. People can't actually do more than one task at a time. Instead we switch tasks. By definition, “Task switching is an executive function that involves the ability to unconsciously shift attention between one task and another” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/the-true-cost-multi-tasking)

Task switching is "expensive" -- There has been a lot of research on task switching. Here's what we know from the research:
*It takes more time to get tasks completed if you switch between them than if you do them one at a time.
*You make more errors when you switch than if you do one task at a time. If the tasks are complex then these time and error penalties increase.
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/the-true-cost-multi-tasking)
 
“Ultimately, it’s that frantic switching of gears (and not truly doing two things at once) that raises so many warning bells for psychologists and productivity experts. Every time you switch, it uses up time and glucose in the brain,” explains Weinschenk. Glucose is the brain’s main source of energy—it’s what keeps us alert and focused.(https://blog.trello.com )

So what can we do when our mentee picks up their phone while we are talking to them?

Some ideas I have found helpful are:
1. TALK to your mentee. Talk about how they are not giving you their real attention when they are looking at their phone while trying to talk.

2. Stop talking and just wait when they start using their phone. Tell them you will wait until they are done.

3. Make a cell phone free zone or time. At our house we have a basket- your phone goes in it at dinner or for a family meeting

4. Set a time for checking texts or social media; for example if you chat for a while and catch up and then give your mentee 10 minutes for phone time, then put it away.

What do you do? Share here any ideas you have!!!
Happy weekend!!