The Inefficiency of Multitasking

More evidence documenting that multitasking does a wonderful job of reducing efficiency and killing productivity -- The Myth of Multitasking. Just do one thing at a time.

Posted: Jul 04, 2008

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But it may stimulate the brain more if done with moderation.

Perhaps switching from right to left and using all areas, contributes to our overall perspectives and alertness

Posted by PR NY on July 04, 2008 at 06:46 PM JST #

PR NY's comment has a point... ever been in one of those meetings where the facilitator suggests you all take a break and play 'catch' with a soft ball - or some other activity which gives the logical half of your brain a rest and exercises the 'spatial/hand-eye' half?

That said, I think there's a line between 'multi-tasking' and 'successfully prioritising a lot of concurrent demands so that you can focus adequately on each of them at a time...'.

Posted by Robin Wilton on July 04, 2008 at 07:02 PM JST #

I agree with both previous comments. There's a balance between multi and single tasking, depends on the task itself. Maybe in our next evolutionary step our brains will do a better job at this - if we keep pushing.

Posted by Rafael on July 04, 2008 at 07:07 PM JST #

Most humans are almost hopelessly lost when it comes to multitasking.

But, if you observe carefully, you'll notice that humans inherently multitask: they can move both hands simultaneously, listen to more than one audiostream simultaneously, etcetera, etcetera.

So, following along this observation, multitasking is a discipline that can be learned and perfected with time. I've started practicing it as a child, inspired by my Commodore Amiga computer, which had a fast, multitasking GUI operating system, the AmigaOS. Over the years I've practiced and practiced, and the pay has been relatively great: I can do up to ten things at once.

The saying goes, "I don't go for a coffee strawl without doing work".

Posted by UX-admin on July 04, 2008 at 08:48 PM JST #

Some of the research into this focuses on multitasking using related tasks vs unrelated tasks. There is room for related task multitasking. The brain can handle that quite well in many ways. But the conflict seems to come up when multitasking using intensely unrelated tasks. Driving while talking on a cell phone is bad, for instance. Or a surgeon operating on someone while talking on the phone with his stock broker during a market crash. Also bad. However, driving and performing surgery both involve multitasking to a certain degree since there are many things involved. There are other instances where multitasking is ok. However, we often use it to "save time" and be "more efficient" and the evidence for that is not strong, especially when the tasks disparate and require intense thinking. Personally, I hate multitasking. :) I keep track of this here: http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/tags/multitasking

Posted by Jim Grisanzio on July 04, 2008 at 11:58 PM JST #

UNIX, for example, has this "thing", where as soon as a process has to wait (for I/O, for example), it is taken off of the CPU, and another process which is ready to run is started or continues to be executed where it left off.

I use the same trick, and it has worked exceptionally well:

when I work on something, and I have to wait for something to complete, I abandon it ("put it on the back burner") while it is running, and go do something else.

If I then have to wait for "something else" to complete, I check on the first thing "on the back burner", and, if the task is completed, I will continue working on it if necessary.

If the previous thing is still running as well, I "fire up" a third job, and if there is no waiting involved, I might check on jobs #1 and #2, "to give them more work" if necessary.

It is a really simple technique, but for some reason it baffled all my bosses so far. They thought I'm "damn fast", and I'm not even working at full speed, maybe at 10% of the speed I could be working at, tops.

Anyways, that technnique is not that hard on the brains (:-) It just needs some mental discipline. Essentially, you'd take on a role of a UNIX sched process (;-)

Posted by UX-admin on July 05, 2008 at 02:45 PM JST #

UX-admin, I like your style. I pretty much do a similar thing, but it is somewhat more primitive and disorganised. Think I'll be trying your method on for size first thing tomorrow. Ta mate =)

Posted by Stiiixy on July 06, 2008 at 08:46 PM JST #

I reckon UX-admin is probably a heck of a good cook. My favourite test of ability to multi-task is the 'full English breakfast'... (or nearly full, anyway): fried egg on toast, fried tomato and mushroom, grilled bacon. If you can serve that all properly cooked and on a warm plate, you can multi-task. For the more advanced test, replace the fried egg with scrambled, and add grilled sausages. ;^)

Posted by Robin Wilton on July 19, 2008 at 12:21 AM JST #

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