It is physically impossible to multitask, according to past scientific research.  We are not more productive when we are mentally bouncing back and forth.  Our minds are unable to jump between activities without there being a loss of quality as well as decreased productivity. That has been a wake-up call for many who considered themselves good at multitasking. 

However there is a possible exception to this.  It appears that about 2.5% of the population may actually multitask without loss of performance.  This report comes from the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review (May 2010).  They tested college students, giving them a math-and-memorization test and a driving simulation.  First they did each activity as a single task, and then they tried doing them at the same time.

Nearly all subjects took longer to brake while multitasking and scored lower on the test.  However 5 out of the 200 tested were able to do both without a loss of quality.  These were dubbed supertaskers.

Before you jump to the conclusion that you would be one of the rare few supertaskers, note that this was in a simulated situation.  Age differences were not evaluated.

My reaction is to proceed with caution.  The results are still inconclusive.  It will be interesting to see if this concept can be further exposed.  Meanwhile, instead of immediately placing yourself among the group of supertaskers, you should focus more on the fact that the vast majority were, as in previous research, unable to multitask without affecting performance.

For more research about multitasking, visit our time management statistics page.