Multi-taskers Beware!

I read this article in The Atlantic recently. A comment from a student who is trying to make her way through my online Comp I course for a second time brought it back to my mind. When you're young and energetic, you think you can cram everything possible into the 24 hours a day you've been allotted. You think you can take 20 credit hours, work 30 hours a week, play 4 hours a day of Guitar Hero, and throw in a few other things as well. You think you can text people, eat burritos, and drive your car simultaneously, all the while listening to Dave Matthews and talking to the three other people in the car. I'm sorry to tell you, but you can't. You're not wired to multi-task.
The only way that you can do two things at one time is if you can put one of those things on autopilot. Yeah, you can breathe and play nose-flute at the same time. (Good thing, that!) But you really can't do two things that require your attention. When you attempt to do that, as this article makes clear, you'll either task-switch between the two or do a lousy job of both.
I can play the guitar pretty well. I can sing pretty well. I can't play the guitar and sing at the same time all that well. When I try to do that, one or both of those performances suffers.
So the moral of the story here is simple. As much as you might want to do so, try not to multitask. Focus on the important things of your life. Don't try to write your biology paper while driving to work. Don't try to read your history textbook while texting your Valentine. Otherwise, you'll end up referring to him/her as Teddy Roosevelt. And that won't turn out well.