As a recent episode of PBS Frontline (the best show on TV, IMHO) entitled Digital Nation points out – once again – the myth of multitasking is trumped by the reality.
I can do no better than to quote from the show (and website) the words of clinical psychologist and MIT professor Sherry Turkle, who has studied the phenomenon of doing more than one (or two or three or four) things at once, as is seen so often among today’s students and younger workforce:
“I teach the most brilliant students in the world,” says Turkle, “but they have done themselves a disservice by drinking the Kool-Aid and believing that a multitasking learning environment will serve their best purposes. There are just some things that are not amenable to being thought about in conjunction with 15 other things.”
Award-winning Frontline producer Rachel Dretzin learned this firsthand by taking a few tests of her own given by Stanford professor Clifford Nass. “It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking. They get distracted constantly. Their memory is very disorganized. Recent work we’ve done suggests they’re worse at analytic reasoning,” Nass tells Dretzin. “We worry that it may be creating people who are unable to think well and clearly.”
The challenge for teachers and employers alike, particularly in the technology arena, seems to be keeping students engaged and interactive, while at the same time teaching them how to think critically and strategically and deeply.
As one student confessed: “Honestly, I can’t sit somewhere for two hours straight and focus on anything. Maybe it’s some technology dependence I’ve developed over the course of the years, but at this point I don’t think I can go back to just focusing on one thing.”
So… Put down the iPod, the Blackberry, the iPhone, the Facebook, the Twitter… and just back slowly away.
If you can.
Comments (0)
I agree. Multi-tasking is exhausting. Some people in my school thinks it’s good and will allow you to finish more work. You do finish more work but in a poor quality.
So true. We’re told that multi-tasking = efficiency, but it’s the exact opposite. Since I started making a conscious effort to focus on one activity at a time (i.e. closing my e-mail browser entirely while working on a report), I’ve found that overall I have more free time. Go figure.
Great insight. The real question is how to put this to work from a practical perspective – it seems there is always a million things that have to get done RIGHT NOW. Reminds me a bit of a tweet from Dr. Srikumar Rao, author and professor of Creativity and Personal Mastery at Columbia Business School, who wrote, “Discovered that tasks get done only when I can avoid a higher priority task by doing it. There’s a lesson here somewhere.”
http://jessicavitalis.com Stop Pinching Your Sister! (Practical Parenting Tips Based on My Columbia MBA)
In today’s society, there are far too many distractions which exist. Thanks to the technological advancements of the 20th and into the current century, the children of today (and even myself) have access to more tools than our ancestors. I believe that the human brain is more than adept at managing several things at once…
YES YES YES!!!!! Having speant 20 years in the IT industry where, indeed, the multitasking kool-aid IV drip hangs in every cube, i applaud any effort to de-bunk this myth. bra – vo…
[…] second post 2010 February 25 by lilactreecreations Just read this. Loved it […]
Awesome, Brian!
Although, gender differences in the female brain do favor multitasking over the male “one task at a time” brain. That’s why the cave men hunted (one task) and the women tended the children, foraged, kept the fire going, cooked, sewed, etc.
Excellent post. I agree, I am one of those multi-taskers who is more distracted than anything.
I was going to post something but then I got an email which I had to reply to after following up on a tweet then the cell phone rang and I then had to send a text….Now I can’t remember what I was going to say….
There’s multitasking and there’s multitasking. A lot of the “work” people do today does not require 100% brain power. I don’t lose anything by writing this post as I listen to the person next to me and think about what I’m going to have for lunch (I really am listening and understanding, although the speaker doesn’t always believe me). However, I wouldn’t try doing these things if I needed to study.
I think the more important factors are the kind and duration of activity would affect how well or how easily that person can do those things. Operating machinery, using manual dexterity, or harnessing hand-eye-coordination skills may not be the best time to be doing something else, but if you’re sitting in a chair and watching TV, you can still be talking on the phone with one person while you AIM with someone else and eat cereal.
This resonates well with an old proverb…”If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.”
Guess it’s even worse if you have more than two rabbits to chase!
[…] Time Management Leave a Comment Tags: memory, multitasking …. Have been reading the multitasking post that appears on WordPress Freshly […]
[…] been told and researched over and over again,how bad multi tasking is. A recent post that I read here has got me thinking about perhaps cutting-back a little. […]
Hi Brian,
Thank you for posting this to your large audience. From my training related to how the human mind really works focusing on one thing at any particular moment is always a quicker path to success.
You may be interested to know a friend mentioned to me the book called Elsewhere USA talks in one chapter about the negative impact of multitasking.
All the best to you and your readers,
David
http://www.TheWonderTechnique.com
Thank you! I’ll how this to my college freshman daughter. Hopefully, I’ll catch her between tasks and she’ll actually pay attention to it! 🙂
So true, we’ve become a society that doesn’t pay attention to detail anymore because of multi-tasking, I must admit that I’m a statistic! 🙁
well I guess it is not genetic but just a question of training – I f.e. hat violin lessons since the age of 3 and piano lessons and done always lots of sports and have been interested in loads of differnet topics and things and I guess this trained my multitasking abilities although they are limited…
I can learn and write better while listening music, it is no problem for me to watch a movie and read a book and know the content of both afterwords and I can write an email and be on the phone at the same time…but other things like learning two different school subjects are in no way possible and effective – don’t know why – maybe it’s listening that makes no problems to me while doing something else cause of my early music-education?
Well all in all I think it’s a nice thing but shouldn’t be a disadvantage if you are not able to – as long as you do the stuff you have to 🙂
I dunno–I have ADD (or ADD like symptoms) and a lot of the time i just CANNOT sit still if I am only concentrating on one thing. It is like i need to keep my right brain entertained and away from distracting my left brain, while my left-brain is trying to learn stuff. So I watch tv, listen to the radio and do homework–and get twice as much done than if I tried to just concentrate on working alone.
I think this is an issue that varies by individual, so that the much simpler truth isn’t that multitasking is bad, it is that we as people must take notice when our personal quality of effort suffers. There is nothing wrong with stopping certain tasks momentarily, then returning to them again later.
I’ve noticed a different problem around me, though I am only speaking for myself when I say this; it is the inability of people to prioritize their problems. I have multiple acquaintances for whom every issue is a problem that must be solved immediately. If you don’t completely understand, imagine this voicemail:
“Call me as soon as you get this.”
Upon returning the call, you may be expecting:
“My father is in the emergency room.”
but instead you typically get:
“What are you up to? Let’s go out to eat.”
At that point you get the “boy who cried wolf” problem; it becomes very hard to take that person’s issues seriously.
Is being able to tell what needs to be solved immediately apart from what can patiently wait an effect of poor multitasking?
wow,
the art truly says everything.
informative and insightful post.
I enjoy multitasking, although it can be very strenuous at times… :/
I thought we previously called multi-tasking ADD.
Really? Brain 100% focused on one thing? It’d be hard for our body to function.
How many people drive thinking of nothing else but steering? There are numerous inputs processed (the person stepping off the curb, the car behind approaching fast, etc). And if the radio is on, we know it’s not 100% focus. Even with the radio off you are probably thinking about what you are going to do when you reach your destination, today’s meeting, plans for the weekend, or monitoring or talking to the child in the back seat, yada yada. Somehow MOST of us can handle that multitasking (notice I said most).
Effective multitasking requires the ability to manage the concurrent tasks/threads and their priority (dynamically). If you are lousy at managing tasks one at a time, don’t expect to be able to handle more than one. Management includes deciding what to or not to perform concurrently and when.
Like anything, a majority of people might be able to do it but not at a competent or high level (e.g. gold). There is a reason a small group out of billions are in the Olympics. In the end, I think it comes down to the individual.
I may not be in the workforce, but as a student I know that lying to yourself and believing you’re a good multitasker just ends up turning a one-hour assignment into an all-nighter.
Yes, some people multitask better than others, but some tasks are better suited to multi-tasking as well. You can’t do deep sustained thinking while you’re firing off an email or watching a movie, or talking on the phone!
Oh, how I sometimes long for the days of Pilgrimage. Of course, times were doughty, and learning was efficient!
Ah, and people consider multitasking a skill!
Being a multitasker all my life, I can say that it helps me to put attention to many things and co-relate them.
I think young people fault isn’t being multitaskers, it is not having enough discipline to focus when it is necessary.
I’m really sorry to have to advertise, but my blog’s brand new and sitting at about three views per day.
Please, help my self-confidence?
Agreed! Multi-tasking’s fine BUT not everything can be juggled in both hands simultaneously: that’d be more like willingly digging ur own grave. I think the best thing one cud do is to assess what can be grouped into one slot of time n done together, and leave out the ones that need ur sole attention, hence a more focused attention.
Agree a 100%.. !! I have seen this in myself.. Thanks to my IPhone which was a birthday gift last year.. I have delayed responses when people ask me questions, my mind is always wandering over my huge TO DO list that doesnt seem to be exhausted.. and I need 10 sticky notes to get one thing done..!! Thanks for reminding again that multi-tasking is not something we should be proud of.. !! Will go and work on this and ONLY this now.. 🙂
Great post. Singleness of purpose.
[…] Chanced upon an interesting post today, after switching on my laptop for the first time since 3 or 4 days ago. Something about multitasking and brain power. Multitasking […]
tankyou
The content of thanks, very helpful
I am glad that someone point this out. I have two children of my own, the first one I drill into him to ‘do one thing at a time’. He is coping well in school. The second one did not had the luxury of the drill, and today, I think he is easily distracted…I am for ‘one thing at a time’!
I agree to some extent. Multitasking does consume mental resources, but not enormous amounts.
We perform multitasking all the time, breathing and reading, writing, listening to music and so on… without being hinderd.
Trying to perform complex tasks at the same time, however, is another thing. Reading the paper while writing an email and talking to a friend on the phone is very hard to do at the same time.
I’d say that it’s OK to multitask, but only one important thing at a time. Since we can only focus on one thing at any given time, it’s important not to lose focus and spend it on irrelevant things.
Multi-tasking is “The Art of Doing More Than One Thing BADLY”
[…] Brian Sittley keeps this up, I’m just going to have to start republishing his feed here… Congratulations to the […]
Yeah, definitely going to have to say it’s up to the individual to identify if multitasking is hurting them. Multitasking is so frickin easy to do. And once you learn all your keyboard short cuts, it’s super fast on a computer.
I like switching between different thoughts, especially if I don’t need to have something completed imediately. It’s almost like a small break for my brain, but I research/learn things I like during this ‘break’.
I’ve heard this before, but I don’t let it stop me (most of the time). Breaking the multi-tasking habit can be difficult.
10 Point Manifesto on How to Work Better By Fischli and Weiss. 1-Do One Thing at a Time.
http://goo.gl/Tytk
[…] On that day, I published an unassuming little article about multitasking, after seeing an episode of PBS’ Frontline. The article in question was written two or three weeks before the day it was actually posted. Never gave it a second thought. Truth be told, I often write articles several days, or even weeks, ahead of publication. (That way, I’m not struck dumb by Writer’s Block on the day a post should be written. I try to build a little buffer.) […]
[…] The busiest day of the year was February 25th with 1,765 views. The most popular post that day was Multitasking? Think Again.. […]
[…] Last year we struck a nerve with our post on the futility of multi-tasking – a post which garnered thousands of hits and became our most popular ever. (That post can be found here if you missed it.) […]
[…] who put us on their ‘front page’ that day, a post we wrote about the idea of multitasking (found here), or more to the point, our scientifically proven inability to do more than one thing well at a […]