Modern womanhood means multitasking. I see hundreds of women every month, and they all maintain the demands of multiple roles: businesswoman, employee, mother, spouse, daughter, sister, homemaker, breadwinner, caretaker, chore and homework supervisor, family taxi driver, meal planner, or some mixture of these and more. While the female brain is better primed to multitasking than our respected male counterparts, we must still recognize the toll that all this mental juggling can take - leading to a unique array of health problems that we didn’t face before in our history as women. While you might feel like you are good at getting a lot done at once, it come at a high cost. (1)
A UK study in 2013 made headlines globally, with its evidence that women were better multitaskers than men. What the research didn’t cover was that taking on the multiple roles of mother, career woman, wife, etc., takes a toll—not to mention stressing over meeting the ridiculous, unrealistic demands of feminine perfection, of being “beautiful.”
Information overload, endless choices, analysis-paralysis—we live in a world that screams at us to multitask. Don’t think you have a problem? While you’re reading this article, is your email dinging in the background? How about calendar notifications? What about your cell phone texts and calls? Don’t forget Twitter and Facebook notifications. Or maybe you are reading this while monitoring your kids homework, making dinner, putting away groceries, and emptying the dishwasher. And how about the mad morning rush? I know that the beginning of my day involves making tea, exercising, prepping food, getting my kids dressed, dealing with my daughter’s hair drama, and trying to make sure everyone gets something nutritious before we leave the house for a full day of school and work. Whatever you are doing, I’d bet that it’s more than one thing. It all adds up, and can take you down fast. “Information fatigue” has become so prevalent that it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2009.
Also consider that your working memory can only hold about four items of information at one time. That means that if you are dealing with a greater amount of information, your brain has to decide what to keep, what to store, and what to discard—that’s a lot of brain energy! The result can be overly taxing to your cognitive resources. And the consequences aren’t just on you—research shows that if you are overloaded with information that you will lean towards making quick decisions, not necessarily the right or most wise ones—and research shows that when you switch back and forth from one task to another, it actually takes more total time than if you focus on one thing at a time! (2)
For women, another factor is the biological make up of our brains. As hormonal creatures, we take on the stress and the multitasking of today’s world, but often forget that without proper nutritional and hormonal balance, we are primed for failure. In a recent study, researchers found that women with androgen insensitivity syndrome had higher rates of anxiety and depression. Androgen insensitivity is a syndrome where the body keeps producing androgens, male hormone derivatives, typically in response to stress, triggering anxiety and depression. (3). I know in practice, androgen insensitivity often presents as PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome, an epidemic amongst women today.
Another study linked stress and cortisol levels to the incidence of post partum depression. (4)
As these studies continue to draw the parallels between chronic multitasking, stress and the toll it takes on the female brain, we as women, have to find ways to buffer and minimize the stress and overstimulation of multiple sensory inputs hitting us at one time.
Try the following to cut down on the drains of multitasking:
Take a gadget break I recommend that everyone have a scheduled electronics break at least once a day for at least an hour. My patients are super resistant to this one, but once the try it, they always thank me. You might love it so much that you decide to take a whole day away from all gadgets.
Focus on one thing at a time Sounds obvious, I know, but most people just don’t do this. If you are working on your computer, turn off all other screens and focus on the task at hand. Schedule a break once an hour to check email, phone, and other social media.
Make a list I am a huge fan of lists. I make one just about every day, and it helps me to organize and schedule my day, to see what needs to happen promptly, and what can be tabled for tomorrow.
Find Your Power Type: You cannot broker world peace, run a business, or look and feel amazing without understanding how You operate inside and out. To find your Power Type and the prescription for your personal Power Type Plan take this fun test to see if you are a Gypsy Girl, Boss Lady, Savvy Chick, Earth Mama, or Nightingale, and then find your personal prescription to help increase your focus and energy in my book Super Woman Rx.