Multitasking Works? Not Really, According to Stanford Study

Multitaskers think they get more done, but according to this research, it just ain't so:

Attention, multitaskers (if you can pay attention, that is): Your brain may be in trouble.

People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time, a group of Stanford researchers has found...

...after putting about 100 students through a series of three tests, the researchers realized those heavy media multitaskers are paying a big mental price.

"They're suckers for irrelevancy," said communication Professor Clifford Nass, one of the researchers whose findings are published in the Aug. 24 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Everything distracts them."

I know a few law students who do not bring laptops to class for this very reason. In my own experience, one of the highest grades I got in law school was in a summer class I took where I only used my Alphasmart Neo for taking notes instead of bringing my laptop to class. It forced me to focus on the topic at hand by eliminating potential potential distractions. Worked like a charm!