Single-Taskers Have Their Day in the Sun!
I'm thrilled to share this blog entry with you all, written by my fabulous coworker Alyce. Enjoy!
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Multi-tasking has been getting a lot of bad press lately which, I must admit, pleases me no end. I don’t remember exactly when it began but multi-tasking came sneaking into our lives, assuming superiority and looking down its nose at any poor slobs who preferred focusing and completing a task before moving on to the next one. Every job seemed to require a “multi-tasking team player needed for fast-paced office!” My blood pressure shoots up just reading it. I’m already stressed and I haven’t even applied yet, but I’m sure as heck not going to tell anyone that I’m not a multi-tasker – it’s downright un-American.
If you had any suspicion that there might be a downside to all this m-t’ing you have probably kept it to yourself. You may even have boasted about being able to do 5 things at once and how totally bored you would be without at least 4 things to do. Not only could you manage all these tasks, but you did them well and efficiently! Well, the evidence from several studies suggests that the sense of efficiency is for the most part delusional.
Yes, people can do many things at once. But all of this switching back and forth in the brain results in mistakes, forgotten details, time wasted, and most importantly, stress and burn-out. It has become so integral to our everyday life people can hardly stand not to do several things at once. How comfortable are you sitting in a quiet room with just your own thoughts? Honestly, have you ever taken your cell phone into the bathroom with you? Mmm-hmm, that is multi-tasking.
Most jobs require multi-tasking – some intensely so. NPR did a program on the subject and spoke with a short-order cook – a job that would not exist unless the cook could do 20 things at once. How did the cook describe his job during rush hour? “Like you’re in an insane asylum. It’s almost unbearable.”
Every person I know, no exaggeration, talks about how forgetful they are – “I don’t know what I started to say, what I was going to do…” Usually it gets blamed on aging, but I hear young people saying the same things. I think the truth is that we are all trying to do too much, too fast.
Well, no surprise, m-t’ing won’t be going away any time soon. Just as we are not likely to go back to writing letters instead of texting, we are not going to collectively calm down as a society. But perhaps we can turn off our cell phones, sit down, and linger over lunch. Take a walk around your neighborhood, again no cell phone, and whoa, no iPod. Try to notice 3 things you never noticed before about the street you live. Pick a task - wash the dishes, water the tomato plants, call a friend - and just do that one thing all the way through until you are done.
With enough practice, you might lay claim to a little more quality of life and make room in your brain to remember what you were going to say or do!
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Read this! Ellen Goodman's "In multitasking Olympics, we all lose".
Actually, this entry reminds me of this post I enjoyed writing recently.
Cheers!
