Multitasking: Not Recommended

Researchers at the Federal Aviation Administration and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor found that while doing multiple tasks at once may appear to be more efficient it actually is more time consuming and in some cases poses health risks.

Four groups of young adults participated in four experiments. They were all asked to carry out a series of tasks and switch between different tasks, some complicated, such as solving a math problem, and others easier and more familiar, such as identifying a geometric shape. A
participant's performance speed was measured as the tasks were carried out.

The findings: human capacity for multitasking decidely has its limits. Participants lost time in performance speed when switching tasks and they lost more time as the task became more complex.

Boycott Multitasking

Just for today, give yourself the benefit of working on one thing at a time. You may have to switch gears, such as when the boss comes in, the important phone call comes through, or you receive a message that requires immediate action, but when you switch gears, switch them entirely: give your complete and undivided attention to the pressing issue at hand. All told, this is the most effective way to work and you'll be your happiest.

Meanwhile, if you notice yourself falling into patterns that resemble multi-tasking, try these solutions:

* Take a 15-minute break once during the morning, once during the afternoon.

* Don't eat at your desk, get away so that you can recharge your battery.

* Invest in equipment or technology that offers you a significant return, i.e. pays for itself within one year or less, and saves at least two hours a week of your time.

* Hold regular meetings with your team to discuss how everyone can be more efficient, without multi-tasking. Focus on the big picture of what you're all trying to accomplish. Often, new solutions to old problems will emerge and activities that seem urgent can be viewed from a broader prospective.

* Furnish your offices with plants, pictures, and art or decoration that inspires creativity and hold brain thinking.

Interruptions Lower IQs

From an article in New Scientist magazine, April, 30 2005:

The next time your boss complains you are not focused enough, blame it on email and phone calls. Even smoking dope has less effect on your ability to concentrate on the task in hand.

At least that's what Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist King's College London, found when he and his team asked 80 volunteers to carry out problem-solving tasks, first in a quiet environment and then while being bombarded with emails and phone calls.

Despite being told to ignore the interruptions, the average IQ of the volunteers dropped by about 10 points. Not everyone was equally affected - men were twice as distracted as women. Studies have also shown that IQs of people high on pot drop by only 5 points.

"If left unchecked, 'infomania' will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness," says Wilson. "This is a very real and widespread phenomenon." Information overload can reduce a person's ability to focus as much as losing a night's sleep can, he adds.

Self-Induced Distractions

More than four years ago Johns Hopkins University researchers concluded that using a cellphone -- even with a hands-free device -- may distract drivers because the brain cannot easily handle both tasks. The brain directs its resources to either visual input or auditory input, but cannot fully activate both at the same time. Despite these findings, MORE people are multi-tasking WHILE they drive.

"Our research helps explain why talking on a cell phone can impair driving performance, even when the driver is using a hands-free device," says research leader Steven Yantis, Ph.D. in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

"Directing attention to listening effectively 'turns down the volume' on input to the visual parts of the brain," he noted. "When attention is deployed to one modality -- say, in this case, talking on a cell phone -- it necessarily extracts a cost on another modality -- in this case, the visual task of driving.”

Despite these findings, MORE people are multi-tasking WHILE they drive. This is madness, pure and simple. Do you want to be on the road when such people are driving by? Do you want your children to be?

Multitasking and Your Brain

“There’s substantial literature on how the brain handles multitasking. And basically, it doesn’t … what’s really going on is a rapid toggling among tasks rather than simultaneous processing,” concludes Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

One Thing at a Time

What is the fastest, most efficient way you can handle all the things competing for your attention? Prioritize them, and then handle them one at a time. It sounds simple enough, but this goes against the grain of society, which "says" do many things at once to be more efficient.

You see this every day: someone jogging down the road listening to an Ipod or somebody doing work or reading while eating lunch. People double up activities, as if somehow that is going to make things easier, better, more rewarding, or longer lasting.

Consider some of the greatest people in history: George Washington, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. Were they in a hurry? Sure, they acted urgently because the things they did were important, but did they walk faster, talk faster, try to do any of the things we do today to be
"efficient?" No -- they had mastered the art of doing one thing at a time.

The daily information and media shower leaves each of us incapable of ingesting, synthesizing, or applying the data before tomorrow's shower. You've got to break out of the mindset that society has imposed upon you. Sometimes the best way to be productive is to sit at your desk doing
nothing; at least nothing that looks like anything to people walking by.

It's Official: Multi-tasking Sucks

Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, quoted in Time Magazine: "Decades of research, not to mention common sense, indicate that the quality of one's output and depth of thought deteriorate as one attends to ever more tasks.”