What could Julius Caesar do at the same time. Three myths about Julius Caesar

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When there is a lot of study and little time, the temptation is great to try to combine it with other things. For example, write a term paper and listen to a new music album. Preparing for an exam and chatting with a friend at the same time. Record a lecture and chat with a friend. At times like this, you might think: "Oh, why am I not Julius Caesar?!" Which, as we remember, was famous for the ability to do several things at the same time. Today, by the way, is the birthday of the great ruler. In honor of this, I propose to think together how to learn how to do several things at the same time and whether it is worth doing.

Can the human brain solve several problems at the same time? Scientists tend to conclude that it is not. In fact, we do not do these things in parallel, but switch from one task to another. So the speed and quality of both tasks usually suffers.

On the other hand, with the help of training, you can increase the speed of these switches, which in general will allow you to work faster. That is, in a situation where you can do your business consistently, it is better to do so - it will be more effective. But when you need to do one thing all the time (like writing a term paper) and another at regular intervals (like answering the phone), being able to switch quickly can help you use your time efficiently.

In addition, you can combine actions that do not require our full attention and concentration, that is, what we do "on the machine". For example, my acquaintance, a music teacher, told me that in her youth she sometimes put "Three Musketeers" on the music stand instead of notes and played memorized works while reading a book. Or take a common example from life: many drivers quite easily combine driving a car with talking on the phone. However, only as long as the movement is calm. If there is some non-linear situation on the road that requires more concentration, the driver will immediately be distracted from the conversation.

To increase your multitasking in cases that do not require full concentration, you need to learn how to distribute attention. There are a number of exercises for this. For example, writing different words with the left and right hand at the same time. Hands will try to synchronize, which will seriously complicate the task. Or count aloud from one to 50, while writing the numbers in reverse order - from 50 to one. Draw circles in different directions with different hands, and to complicate it, describe some figure with your foot. There is even such a direction as asymmetric gymnastics, in which different parts of the body perform different movements. Thus, a person not only develops the body, but also trains the brain to control several actions at once.

Benefit or harm?

Is it worth it to multitask in your studies? The question is ambiguous. In most cases, combining mental work with other activities, we get distracted and, as a result, the speed and quality of work only suffers. Although there are exceptions. For example, some people find it comfortable to memorize information to music. Moreover, when they hear the same melody, they immediately remember that they were taught under it.

The basis of effective work on cases is complete on one task. It has always been talked about and written about. However, in the modern world, it is believed that a person who makes several things at once more successful in their work. But this is only an illusion and the influence of the modern pace of life.

A modern person is sometimes even forced to feel like Julius Caesar, and even while relaxing at home, he can find himself doing several things at once: having dinner at a laptop while watching TV. In addition, checking mail is accompanied by viewing events in social networks, writing messages on Twitter, searching for any material or product, etc. etc.

Multitasking makes us feel better, creates a feeling of increased productivity.

But experimental studies show that our ideas are at odds with reality. Subjects using multitasking perform their work worse and slower than those who are engaged in only one task at a certain period of time, although the former feel better at the same time. When we try to juggle several things, we have a feeling of completion of all the necessary things, we feel very efficient. And from the outside, such people also impress productive people who do everything at once.

But how does our brain respond to multitasking?

Multitasking is alien to our brain. The fact that you are talking on the phone, writing something in the messenger, drinking coffee at the same time, does not mean at all that the brain has focused on all these tasks. Each process is processed and lives in a separate part of the brain, and they do not run simultaneously. First, one process is started, while the other is suspended. What allows you to perceive this as the simultaneous execution of tasks, in fact, is a quick shift of attention.

How to deal with multitasking and focus on one thing?

1. One browser tab. When working on the Internet, constantly switching from tab to tab is very unfocused and reduces the efficiency of work. Limit yourself to 1 open tab to force yourself to get serious. It will also help you prioritize. For any other job, this can be expressed as: only one task is running.

2. . You should always plan your affairs at least in a minimal form. At the end of the working day, think about what you need to do tomorrow and even about how to do it. Planning should not be rigid, leave opportunities for urgent work.

3. Movement. This is not always possible, of course, but changing the place and linking a certain activity to a fixed place helps to better switch to this task, almost physically tune in to it, as well as distract and relax a bit. For example, do the main work at your desk, make calls in the corridor or at the next table, dine in the kitchen, etc.

Canadian psychologists have studied the process by which the human brain solves two problems at the same time. And they found out that in fact the brain switches very quickly from one task to another, and does not solve them in parallel. At the same time, the speed of such switching can be increased by training.

The researchers used a tomograph to monitor brain activity and determined that the prefrontal cortex plays a key role in putting two things together at once. It cannot provide truly parallel actions, but it can sequentially solve two different tasks.

What they were doing?

A group of seven subjects were asked to solve two problems. In the first, by pressing one of the two buttons, it was necessary to sort the images that appeared on the screen. In the second, it was already necessary to sort the sounds - and not by pressing the button, but by saying the answer aloud.

Even at the beginning of the experiment, psychologists saw a natural picture. Individually, the subjects coped with any of the tasks quite quickly, but an attempt to solve both of them simultaneously led to a sharp deterioration in the results. Training for two weeks in solving both problems simultaneously significantly increased not only the speed of solving each problem separately, but also their simultaneous execution. Although, as further analysis of the results of the experiment showed, the brain could not become truly multitasking.

How exactly?

The fact that with the help of training it is possible to speed up the solution of two parallel tasks is in itself not a new fact, and therefore, from a scientific point of view, of little interest. Scientists were interested not only in the ability to learn how to solve several different tasks at the same time, but also in how the brain changes in the process of such training.

Scientists have suggested that multitasking can be achieved in several ways. For example, in the process of learning a task, the brain can switch from the prefrontal cortex to other structures: in this case, the subjects would do the sorting of pictures or sounds automatically, without conscious participation. A similar effect can be achieved by allocating separate groups of cells for the task, which are not occupied with anything else: a section of the cerebral cortex would be responsible for its task.

However, most of the possible explanations were recognized by scientists as untenable in the course of processing the results of the experiment. Multitasking actually turned out to be associated not with the emergence of separate specialized areas, but with the acceleration of the prefrontal cortex.

Is it possible to multitask?

The researchers, who described their experiment in the journal Neuron, were able to show that when the brain is doing two tasks at the same time, it constantly switches from one to the other. These switchings require a certain time, which can be reduced by training - however, not to an arbitrarily small amount. In addition, the success of training largely depends on the complexity of the task. Rene Marois, one of the researchers, noted that tasks that require complex logical operations are solved by parts of the brain that are not involved in solving simple tasks.

Finding out exactly how the human brain adapts to perform several tasks at once is important not only for understanding the principles of the brain as a whole. A driver talking on a cell phone or a machine operator who is distracted by a question finds himself in a similar situation. And air traffic controllers do have to constantly solve several problems at once, and a mistake can lead to disaster. If psychologists learn how the brain copes with such situations, it will be possible to develop recommendations for the risk group.

How to do several things at the same time? Surely this question is of interest, first of all, to those people who often do not have time to do everything necessary, both at work and personally. To give an answer, we need to delve into a science called, that is, the art of time management.

Probably many people know a man who did several things at the same time - Julius Caesar. Largely due to this quality, he was remembered and went down in history.

Is it possible to repeat his abilities and how to do many things at the same time - more on that later.

First of all, and this is very important, you need to be able to divide all the things that you do into 2 categories:

1. Active actions- these are actions that require concentration of attention and mental effort (for example, writing an article, negotiating with a client, compiling a report, etc.).

2. Passive actions- these are actions that are performed automatically, do not require concentration of attention and mental effort (for example, the road to work, standing in line, eating, etc.).

It is also important to understand that for different people and in different situations, the same actions can be both active and passive. For example, for a novice motorist or in a large stream of cars, driving is an active action, and for an experienced motorist and on a free country road, it is passive.

So, if you are thinking about how to do several things at the same time, because you do not have enough time, you need to start with the fact that in parallel with passive things, it is imperative to perform active ones.

Each person daily performs a certain number of passive actions that cannot be avoided in any way, which will have to be performed in any case. If you have to take some passive action, think about what active things you can do with it in parallel.

The simplest option that many use is to make the necessary phone calls while walking down the street (passive action) (active action). A mobile phone, and many other modern technologies, is generally a very useful thing - with their help you can do several things at the same time in a variety of situations.

For example, again, while driving down the street or even in public transport, you can listen to useful audio books on your headphones - this will save you a lot of time, and even for your own benefit: firstly, you will learn useful lessons from the materials you listened to, secondly, you do not have to spend a significant amount of time to read these books. I confess that I myself walk a lot and actively use this method. These same useful audiobooks can be listened to in the car instead of useless radio or music.

If you perceive visual information better, and are forced to passively spend some part of your time in public transport, you can use e-books for reading during this period. True, for this you will definitely need to sit comfortably, which is not always possible, but you can always listen to the necessary material with headphones, thereby doing two things at the same time.

With the help of headphones and a mobile device, you can not only “read” books, but also do other useful things at the same time as passive ones, for example, learn English or take personality development trainings using audio lessons. Agree, it will not be superfluous, and you will spend your time with benefit.

If you access the Internet from a mobile device, you can use this feature during passive travel in transport or waiting for important active things, such as checking mail and replying to important messages. I once read on one of the forums that a part-time student used the 2 hours a day spent on the train to write articles for sale using a laptop. That is, he actually made money during the inevitable and routine passive processes, doing two things at the same time. Well done! Take note…

You can do several things at the same time not only with the help of modern gadgets. The second, active thing can be just thought, mental processes. By performing a passive action, you can simultaneously make some plans, develop something in your mind, for example, tactics for holding an important business meeting. And, for example, when going to lunch during your lunch break, you can take a colleague with you and discuss some working moments at the meal so as not to waste working time on them.

Thus, it is possible and even necessary to do two things at the same time, competently combining passive and active actions. This will certainly give a good, useful result and significantly save your time, which is not enough.

However, if we are talking about combining one active action with another, that is, doing two things at the same time, each of which requires concentration of attention and mental effort, the effect is most likely to be completely opposite. Namely, the result of both these cases will suffer, none of them will be performed qualitatively, because. on none of them will you be able to concentrate properly.

Why is it so? The answer lies in the way the human brain works. When a person concentrates on performing one active action, both his hemispheres are involved in the work, and the brain performs its functions in the best possible way. If a person does two active actions at the same time, then the functions are divided between the two hemispheres: the right hemisphere processes the first action, and the left hemisphere processes the second. In this case, the result will depend on how developed the brain of a particular person is, but it will definitely be of lower quality than when performing one action. And if a person does several things at the same time (3 or more), then complete chaos begins in the brain, and thought processes cannot proceed properly in any of the tasks performed.

Thus, only a person with unique brain abilities (like, for example, Julius Caesar) can do several active things at the same time so that all of them are performed efficiently. It is physiologically impossible for a simple person.

To do this, while exercising, simply think over and write out a list of passive things that you need to do. Then think about what active things you can combine with these passive things, doing them at the same time, in parallel. Then it remains only to fulfill the planned plan, significantly saving time (and this, do not forget, is an irreplaceable human asset) and having time to do all the planned things.

Well, it’s better not to do several things in parallel, if each of them requires active mental activity - this will only make you feel worse, the overall result will suffer from this. Concentrate on only one active action, while, if possible, doing it in parallel with the passive one.

Now you know how to do several things at the same time, in which cases it is possible and makes sense. I hope that my advice will be useful to you and help you succeed in any business. Do not forget that there are other, equally important ones that can and should also be used in order to manage to do all the planned things.

See you soon at the site, which will become your guide on the path to success, improve your financial literacy and teach you how to use your personal finances as efficiently as possible.

Most people think they're good at multitasking, but a study from the University of Utah shows that people who are more likely to multitask, including talking on a cell phone while driving cope with it worse than others.

“What worries us is that people who talk on a cell phone while driving tend to be worse at multi-tasking,” says David Sanbonmatsu, professor of psychology and lead author of the study. “According to our data, those people who, while driving, talk on the phone, perhaps they should not do this. We have shown that people who are most likely to multitask at the same time are the ones least capable of multitasking effectively.”

David Strayer, another lead author and professor of psychology at the University of Utah, adds: “People who are most prone to multitasking seem to be better at multitasking than others, when in reality their ability is not any better, and often even worse than average.”

Quoting humorist Garrison Keillor's famous line about kids in Keillor's fictional hometown, Strayer says that people who use cell phones while driving "everyone thinks they live in Lake Wobegon [Lake Wobegon] where everything is above average. But it's statistically impossible."

The study involved 310 psychology students who had to take a series of tests and complete a series of questionnaires to measure their actual error tolerance, perceived error tolerance, use of a cell phone while driving, use of a wide range of media, and measure personality traits. such as impulsivity and thrill seeking.

Key discoveries:

“People who are most capable of multitasking effectively are not among those most likely to multitask.” Instead, those who score high on tests of true multitasking tend to avoid multitasking as they are better able to focus on the task at hand.

· The more often people multitask, talking on the phone while driving or using multiple media at the same time, the more they lack true multitasking ability, and their perceived multitasking ability "appears to be vastly overestimated". In fact, 70 percent of the participants thought their ability to multitask was above average, which is statistically impossible.

People with high levels of impulsivity and thrill seeking reported multitasking more than others. However, there was an exception: Those who talk on the phone while driving do not tend to be impulsive, indicating that using a cell phone is a conscious choice.

· According to the study, people who resort to multitasking often do so not because they have the ability to do so, but "because they find it harder to block out distractions and focus on one task."

Summing up, the scientists say that: "The negative relationship between communication via cellular communication while driving and the ability to perform several tasks at the same time provides additional reasons for imposing restrictions at the legislative level on the use of cell phones while driving a motor vehicle."

Sanbonmatsu and Strayer conducted research with University of Utah coauthors Jason Watson, associate professor of psychology, and Newton Mideiros-Word, PhD student in psychology. The study was funded by the Foundation for Traffic Safety of the American Automobile Association.

How the study was conducted

The scientists say that while people often multi-task, “relatively little is known about when and why people engage in more than one attention-demanding task at the same time. Regarding this, little is known about who is most prone to multitasking.”

The participants in the experiment were 310 psychology students at the University of Utah—176 females and 134 males, with an average age of 21—who volunteered to help out in their department's subject for extra points on top of their grades.

To measure actual error tolerance, participants performed a test called Operation Span, or OSPAN. The test includes two types of tasks: memorization and mathematical calculations. The participants had to memorize between two and seven letters, each separated from the other by a mathematical example, which the participants must determine as correct or incorrect. A simple example of a question: 2+2=6?, r, 3-2=2?, a, 4x3=12?". Answer: true, r, false, a, true.

Participants were also asked to report the level of their multi-tasking ability they felt they had on a scale from zero to 100, with a median of 50%.

Participants reported how often they use a cell phone while driving and what percentage of their driving time they talk on the phone. They also answered questions about what media they use and for how many hours, including print media, television, video, computer video, music, non-music audio, video games, telephone, instant messaging, text messaging, email, internet and other software such as text editors. The results were used to compile the Media Multitasking Index.

Who performs several tasks at once and why?

The researchers looked for significant associations between scores on various tests and questionnaires.

“People who are more likely to multitask are more likely to be impulsive, thrill-hungry, overconfident in their ability to multitask, and most likely to be the worst at multitasking,” says Strayer, summarizing the results.

The 25 percent of people who performed best on the OSPAN multitasking ability test "are the ones who are least likely to multitask and most likely to do one thing at a time," says Sanbonmatsu.

On the contrary, 70 percent of the participants said that their ability to multitask was above average and they were more likely to multitask.

“One of the main reasons people multitask is because they think they're good at it,” says Sanbonmatsu. "But our research shows that people's abilities are rarely as good as they think they are."

The ability of people to multitask at the same time, as identified by the OSPAN test, is strongly and negatively associated with the simultaneous use of media and talking on a cell phone while driving, which means that people who are more likely to multitask at the same time have the least this ability.

"When you see someone doing multiple things at once, you might think they're good at it," Strayer says. “In fact, the more often they do it, the more likely they are to do it poorly.”

Sanbonmatsu adds: “Our results show that people tend to multi-task because it is difficult for them to focus on one task at a time. They get involved in new things. … They get bored and want to be stimulated by talking on the phone while they are driving.”

Study participants reported spending 13 percent of their driving time on cell phones, which is roughly the same as the government estimate that one in 10 drivers is on the phone at any given time.

Simultaneous use of several media, with the exception of talking on the phone while driving, was significantly associated with impulsivity and in particular with inability to concentrate and rash actions. Impulsive people are more quick-thinking and risk-taking, so they may worry less about the cost of doing more than one thing at a time, scientists say.

Multitasking, on the other hand, including talking on the phone while driving, was largely associated with the desire for thrills. Some people do more than one thing at once because it gives them more incentive, it's more interesting, more difficult and less boring, although this can be detrimental to the overall result.

Two University of Utah professors, David Sanbonmatsu and David Strayer, and a car simulator they used as part of their study on cell phone use while driving. In a new study, Sanbonmatsu and Strayer found that people who multitask most often have the least ability to do so. This also applies to those who talk on the phone while driving.