Researchers at educational institutions across the world have found that multitaskers experience lower IQs and decreased empathy (the ability to sympathize with others) compared to those who do not multitask.

Multitasking, which is doing two or more things at once, is in fact rapid switching of attention from one thing to another. Thus, “Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain is wired to focus on a single thing at a time,” the journal Inc. reported on a Stanford University study. “When you try to do two things at once, your brain simply lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.”

For instance, performing a cognitive task—such as solving math problems or writing a paper—while watching television reduces a person’s IQ by 15 points, as stated by a University of London study. This is considered the equivalent of lacking a night of sleep, or a 40 percent reduction in efficiency.

In addition, researchers at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom found that individuals who spend time on multiple devices simultaneously have less brain density in the anterior cingulate cortex—the region responsible for emotional control and empathy. Inc. explained that “if you’re switching your gaze from your laptop to your smartphone to a TV screen and back again, you stand to miss a lot of subtle nonverbal signals from the person you’re simultaneously talking with.”

Missing social cues on a regular basis causes a person to lose self- and social-awareness—two elements considered vital to success in securing a job.

TalentSmart, an online program that offers services related to emotional intelligence, stated that “every time you multitask you aren’t just harming your performance in the moment; you may very well be damaging an area of your brain that’s critical to your future success at work.”

Lack of empathy also reduces a person’s ability to develop and maintain relationships.

Dr. Sara H. Konrath, lead author of a University of Michigan at Ann Arbor study published in Personality and Social Psychology Review, stated: “There have been significant declines in the number of organizations and meetings people are involved in, as well as in the number of average family dinners and friendly visits. Indeed, people today have a significantly lower number of close others to whom they can express their private thoughts and feelings. Alternatively, the ease and speed of such technology may lead people to become more readily frustrated or bored when things do not go as planned, resulting in less empathic interactions. Furthermore, people simply might not have time to reach out to others and express empathy in a world filled with rampant technology revolving around personal needs and self-expression.”

Each time a person switches attention from one task to another, dopamine—a hormone that produces a feeling of satisfaction—is released. Since dopamine mimics the effect of addictive drugs such as heroin, multitasking conditions the mind to operate in short sessions. As a result, Generation Z (those born during and after the late 1990s) has an average attention span of eight seconds.

In order to reverse the negative trends, several methods have been developed to strengthen the mind. Patrick Skerrett, former executive editor of the Harvard Medical School publication Harvard Health, discussed a method called “set shifting.” He wrote on Harvard’s health blog: “This means consciously and completely shifting your attention from one task to the next, and focusing on the task at hand. Giving your full attention to what you are doing will help you do it better, with more creativity and fewer mistakes or missed connections. Set shifting is a sign of brain fitness and agility…”

Other recommendations (from Inc.) include: pick a distraction-free area to perform a task, perform related tasks in clusters, grow your attention span with some quiet time, learn to say no to a request if it will distract you from your current work, and ask people around you to hold you accountable for focusing.

Lastly, meditate on God’s Word. Setting apart time to think through a biblical subject not only has spiritual benefits, but can also help increase attention span, intelligence, empathy and self-awareness.