I read an article recently similar to this recently, but I can’t remember where I read it. There is an entry on Creating Passionate Users similar to what I’m going to write about, but because it is over a year old, I doubt that was what I read. At any rate, there is an article floating around on the internet that is my motivation for this article…
The more I think about multitasking the more I realize that it’s a huge farce. I don’t know who first proposed the concept of multi-tasking–but I would suppose it was a business or technology guru. The idea has to do with being more productive, and from the surface multitasking seems like a great idea–”You’re telling me I can do sixteen things at once and finish my work faster? That’s great!”
But I’ve never actually met someone who could multitask. What happens during “multitasking” is that you devote a portion of your attention to two or more tasks. Inevitably, one or both of the tasks’ quality will suffer, and you are not likely to actually improve your speed. By devoting less than all of your attention to one project at a time, you lose attention that could be dealing with it. In effect, you could have done both tasks, one after the other, and likely ended earlier.
What most of us consider “multitasking” is actually a serial process. We work on one thing for a few seconds and jump to the next. And until both projects are done, we switch back and forth as necessary. Sometimes, this process makes sense: maybe you’re waiting for your computer to finish a task or maybe you’re on hold. But most of the time, this is the least efficient way to work.
On some tasks, the process of serialization doesn’t affect performance. I can talk on the phone and scribble on a piece of paper with no problems. Now if I try to talk on the phone and send instant messages, I don’t actually pay attention to either conversation–I’m floating through both trying to do more than I should.
The result of serialization is that I don’t devote enough energy to either task. I know some of you are reading this, thinking, “I can multitask, I know I can, and this is just wrong.” But I really advise you to consider this absurd proposition. You can’t multitask–no one can. You may think computers can…but unless they have multiple processors, they can’t either. They serialize the tasks as well!
This is particularly troubling in conversations, meetings, phone calls, and other situations where more than one person is involved. By attempting to “multitask” in this environment, you are, in effect, telling the other party that they are less important than the other task that you are trying to complete. I remember talking to my sister on the phone one night, and I heard this hideous racket in the background. I asked her, “What is that sound?” She replied, “I’m cleaning the kitchen.” I was incensed and told her, “We can talk later when you’re done.” (Editor’s Note: She does not do this any more!)
By choosing to talk and clean, she was choosing to degrade both activities. If we had continued the conversation, she would have done a half-hearted job of cleaning and forgotten most of our conversation.
But mainly, don’t convince yourself that you can multitask. I can see no benefit in trying to do something that will never be successful. In the end, you will waste yours and everyone else’s time.