"Men can't multitask." True or false?

Multi tasking is a myth. It's really just doing two things not as well. Neither men nor women have any special advantage when it comes to it.

by Jennifer Muirhead

My experience shows that men are better on cutting out distractions and focussing on one task than women. Maybe this flipside is where the myth has come from? I agree though, I think I would be more effective if I just did one thing at a time!

Absolutely true. At least for me.

by Matteo Lor

Lol! I like your honesty :)

Some can and some can't...I'd say its an individual thing, the same way that some women can't multitask. I've met more men that can't multitask, my hubby included and its been like a foreign concept to them.

by helenonthesofa

Reason being is that when men do something they do it with a lot of concentration.Their focus is given over to that one thing.

Women can do more at once because normally they have children.One can go off in one direction, while another somewhere else.
It is to keep the young safe, so that is just how women are made.

I think both compliment each other quite well :)

by jonaja

Do you think it is how we're made or how we have to be? I agree that with children it is hard to focus on one thing at a time but I wonder if it's just mothers tend to get more practice at it than fathers, rather than an innate ability.

35 years ago.
I was on the phone.
Stirring dinner in the kitchen.
And keeping baby out as well with my foot.
And telling my toddler to stop it!
It is part of how we are made totally.

I am genuinely undecided on this one! My husband and son both focus obsessively on one task at a time, to the point that if I need their attention I have to physically interpose myself between them and the task. I couldn't work like that if you paid me! My brain fires in multiple directions at once.

But... I once read a very interesting article about how Formula 1 drivers operate and it said that the reason Michael Schumacher was so successful was because he is extremely gifted at multitasking.

by VerityG

A lot of interesting replies and interesting point being made! However, amongst the men that I know, there aren't too many who can manage multi tasking. And I think a woman who has had children is particularly good at multitasking!

by Sandy Ludinski

I agree :)

Can't really generalize. The men I have encountered in my life are not able to multi-task.

by Happy Mom

Can't is not in my vocabulary no matter what your gender!

by Shelley Murphy

I think it depends on each men.

by silvi