Multitasking In College

The average person has more than one focus in life and that in turn can result in an abundance of time-consuming tasks. In my experience, if the average college student did not multi-task in some form or another, they would not get everything done and get an adequate amount of sleep, which is 7-9 hours. In fact, at this very moment, I am multi-tasking. I am listening to music, stretching for my dance classes, eating, and working on this paper all at once. If I did not do this, I would not be able to do all my homework, eat, and get enough sleep. According to Alina Tugend, author of the article “Multitasking Can Make You Lose… Um… Focus”, most people “can do a couple of things at the same time if they are routine” and in most cases, multitasking …show more content…
It stems from busy schedules, inadequate amounts of sleep, and an overload of work. Students begin to “feel required to do more and more things in a shorter period of time” and therefore adapt a multitasking routine (726). Constantly going from class to class, being expected to spend at least an hour for each assignment, and being expected to get at least seven hours of sleep each night, puts a lot of stress on students both mentally and physically and, in my opinion, unrealistic. That is where multitasking comes in. By doing more than one task at a time, I, personally, am able to create a more manageable schedule and find time to sleep. According to Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist and author of several works on the topics of multitasking, “sleeping less to do more is a bad strategy… we are efficient only when we sleep enough, eat right and exercise” (729). If a student were to attempt to do every task assigned without multitasking, they would end up doing exactly what Dr. Hallowell advises against. The stress of college life and the need for sleep are two of the primary factors in a student’s decision to multitask and although many will argue that it can impair one’s cognitive performance, multitasking can actually positively train the

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