Multitasking - Forget it
By Rob Wilkins
In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: “There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one’s time; it was a mark of intelligence. “This steady and undissipated attention to one object, is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.”
In our, at times reckless lives, we tend to believe that signs of accomplishment are how much we can achieve when doing more than one thing at a time. To produce that report’ at the same time as interviewing for that new employee, at the same time as preparing for the family BBQ on the weekend, is considered to be an accomplishment worthy of praise and recognition. However the truth, as I see it, is far from this.
You have heard me make mention of John Medina and His “Brain Rules” before. John maintains, through his study of molecular biology and neural pathways, that the brain is a sequential processor and therefore multitasking cannot, as we know it, take place. In fact what we engage in is “task switching”. This has happened right throughout the industrial age and people have become very good at it. However with the advent of the information age we have now started to reach the boundaries of what we can switch between before we lose focus and quality. More recently, challenges to the notion of multitasking have begun to emerge. Numerous studies have shown the sometimes-fatal danger of using mobile phones and other electronic devices while driving, for example, in the United States laws have been passed that have now made that particular form of multitasking illegal. In the business world, where concerns about time-management are perennial, warnings about workplace distractions spawned by a multitasking culture are on the rise. In 2005, the BBC reported on a research study, funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, that found, “Workers distracted by e-mail and internet suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.” The psychologist who led the study called this new “infomania” a serious threat to workplace productivity.
The moral of the story is that we should be cognisant of our performance and recognise that the completion of singular tasks with excellent results will still allow us to perform and perform well, it is just that we will not be causing any damage along the way. Children in western civilisation learning today, live in an information rich scoiety and the multitasking that comes with this could be affecting the way people learn. Take one students quote from the Kaiser Family foundation research project in the USA: “At this very moment I am watching TV, checking my e-mail every two minutes, reading a newsgroup about who shot JFK, burning some music to a CD, and writing this message.”
They think they are multitasking. This constant task switching will take it’s toll. Jack of all trades and master of none is the situation that comes to mind.
Wind it back. Concentrate on one thing at a time and feel the joy of a job well done.
Rob Wilkins is a Learning and Development professional with over 20 years experience in Corporate Learning and Development, Management and Executive Development, Learning Technologies and Organisational Performance Improvement. Currently completing his Masters in Knowledge Management and Business Information, Rob is considered a specialist in eLearning and Personal Learning Environments with a strong Knowledge Management influence guiding his research and professional development. Email: dawilkos@tpg.com.au : or more of his insights on a daily basis: Blog: http://roalp.blogspot.com