Roman philosopher Publilius Syrus himself uttered in 100 B.C., “To do two things at once is to do neither.”
Yet, multitasking is constant now. We do it because it is expected, but also because we believe we can — sort of.
The truth, says, David Meyer, a Michigan psychologist and cognitive scientist who has run several studies on the subject, is we don’t and can’t do it well. We can if the tasks are simple and virtually automatic (think walking and chewing gum at the same time) but true, effective, efficient, meaningful multitasking is akin to jamming two TV signals down the same cable wire. You get static, not high-definition.
A very engaging article about how we are so often getting in the way of ourselves: