IndexIntroductionPreassessmentSelf-Study Plan DetailsAnalysisReflectionIntroduction The ability to complete multiple tasks at once is the ultimate superpower that many college students dream of. Firstly because they delude themselves into thinking they don't have enough time to dedicate themselves to doing everything they need to do. Secondly, there is never rest, there are assignments to hand in, most students work and have to grade papers or rush into stressful work environments straight from the exam room. It might even seem like 24 hours isn't enough to constitute an entire workday. However, in the pursuit of optimal results, students end up compromising the quality of their work to achieve quantitative goals. Since it is physically possible to perform multiple tasks at the same time, multitasking may seem like a good thing, however, you will never be able to be optimally productive and take care of every aspect of a task if your attention is divided between multiple tasks. Say no to plagiarism. . Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayPre-Assessment "Ay yo! I'm just like my country, I'm young and hungry, and I won't throw away my chance!", this line from the hit Broadway musical Hamilton is the soundtrack to most of my assignments At various times of the day, and depending on the task I'm engaged in, there's an appropriate Hamilton rap battle relevant to that setting and, without fail, I find myself singing and acting out some scenes in my head as I claim to be. engaged in an important task. Music may seem like a passive and complementary tool to aid the digestion of material while studying, however, a piece of music loaded with its own literary content requires some of the attention, so multitasking may seem possible despite the obvious problems posed by divided attention. Every time I listen to Hamilton while working, I'm essentially learning about American history and whatever topic my assignment is, all at once, so it becomes impossible to fully apply myself to both activities. Due to the amount of work I have to do on a daily basis, there are three "rest periods" in my day and most of them are deliberately timed to coincide with meal times. I start my day at 7 and start reading for the day, then I have breakfast at 10 and this is the first break of the day which lasts 50 minutes, enough time to watch an episode of Sherlock Holmes while I eat. The next few hours are quite productive in the sense that I can get a lot of work done. However, they are not exclusively dedicated to a single task, but include reading and taking notes at the same time, with more music in the background and frequent trips to the kitchen/tea station. Most of the reading is on my smartphone and is done by taking a quick look at my emails and text messages every now and then. It goes on like this until dinner time, where I eat while continuing to read, or watch an episode of The Big Bang Theory, to resume reading immediately afterwards and start writing the assignment until it's time to go to sleep. Synopsis of the academic article Multitasking is an integral part of our life. We are constantly multi-tasking to increase efficiency. However, when we focus on multiple tasks at the same time, our attention is divided and there is fragmentation and interference in how we receive, process and translate information from multiple sources, effectively. decreasing the quality and quantity ofinformation. The modern college learning experience incorporates technology into traditional teaching practices. As a result, classrooms are flooded with laptops. However, research shows that students who multitask on the laptop and those around them physically have disrupted absorption of lecture content, thus achieving significantly lower scores than their non-multitasking counterparts. Self-Study Plan Details For the purposes of this assignment, I will dedicate a day to focus on one assignment at a time. On this day I will set aside a fixed amount of time to read for this and other assignments, so I will take notes after reading rather than as I read. Also during the reading period I will be in the library where music is prohibited. Finally, my breaks will be exclusively dedicated to food, without any form of entertainment. As a result, I plan to take shorter breaks at a coffee shop where there is no way to watch any programs. Finally, I will refrain from using my cell phone during meetings, whether to communicate via text or email, or to catch up on the latest news. business. Instead, I will spend thirty minutes in the morning reading news headlines, emails, and weather updates. To ensure minimal distraction, I will disconnect my cell service to prevent any phone calls and texts while in the library and during meetings. Analysis The biggest challenge I faced while abstaining from multitasking was overcoming the overwhelming sense of sluggishness I felt. I started the day with a quick browse of the Internet to read the day's news headlines, check weather updates, and read and respond to my emails. Instead of immediately diving into the readings, I spent about thirty minutes planning my day and making a timetable to ensure I stayed on track with the tasks I needed to do today. I created reminders to accompany the program and tried to make it as accurate as possible. I later realized this was a mistake as one of my meetings ran slightly over time and I found myself tempted to continue using my phone as I was snoozing the reminder for the next item on my calendar. On the other hand, I was able to make an excellent contribution to the meeting as I was fully present and involved. In each of the day's tasks, I was able to apply myself fully to the task at hand, without distractions, and this showed in the results. After attending important meetings early in the day, I started reading for this assignment. Because I was reading and not taking notes, I was more efficient and was able to quickly finish reading the newspaper article on multitasking and dividing attention, while retaining as much information as possible without having to read the document multiple times. The reading was followed by a note-taking period during which I was able to write down what I had taken away from the reading and, surprisingly, my recall of the information did not deteriorate, despite missing a day between reading and starting the reading. writing this response piece. Neither activity was accompanied by Hamilton. The easiest task to do while avoiding multitasking was eating. Meal times were very quick and at no point was I worried or even aware that I wasn't watching any of my favorite TV shows. Furthermore, even though I had my smartphone with me, I didn't read any of the newspaper articles I was using to complete my homework while I was eating. Instead, I set aside the last five minutes of mine,.