Slack reduces emails but forces employees to keep tabs on multiple lines of conversation with bosses and other team employees is the new normal at work for many of us. Slack is supposed to increase productivity by asking us to juggle more.

In healthcare, where I work, more errors on input are made by interruptions while I am inputting patient info than with anything else.

Some people are unable to handle one thing at a time while others seem to do just fine or do they? According to the latest Freakonomics podcast, even those who seem to be able to juggle better, maybe cannot.

A test given to people applying for a flight controller’s job asks us to multi-task by prioritizing activities and inputs that are entering our screens. It is difficult to do unless you either have the innate ability to do so or if you trained yourself to. Inattention to the details on the screen can result in a crash if you are applying for that job, the priority must be the prevent a crash.

Many medical errors can be made when a surgeon is distracted while doing their surgery. Perhaps this is why the team approach is so necessary. Imagine, as we recently heard they removed your liver instead of your spleen, as what happened in Florida recently to a 70-year-old man. He died on the operating table.

On the other hand, a small subset of people which is estimated to be under 3 percent of the population can fully multitask and make very few errors when tested, when compared to the rest of the population. This is not the norm though.

Check out the podcast using the link below. I highly recommend the podcast which has weekly engaging subjects and I also recommend reading Stephen Dubner’s book Freakonomics as well.