I’ve just finished reading a facinating article from The Seattle Times discussing the research of Professor David Levy (University of Washington). Some of the interesting quote I found from from the article are…….
We’re shooting through technological rapids that have opened doors and changed the dynamic of work, how we communicate and live, and sometimes even think. All these tools have made our lives easier in many ways. But they’re also stirring deep unease. Some are concerned that the need for speed is shrinking our attention spans, prompting our search for answers to take the mile-wide-but-inch-deep route and settling us into a rhythm of constant interruption in which deadlines are relentless and tasks are never quite finished.
In fact, multitasking – a computing term that involves doing, or trying to do, more than one thing at once – has cemented itself into our daily lives and is intensely studied. Research has shown it to be consistently counterproductive, often foolish, unhealthy in the long run, and in the case of gabbing on the cell phone while driving, relatively dangerous. Yet it is also expected, encouraged and basically essential.
Today, we can do more. And do more, faster. And do more, faster, from anywhere, all the time. You can work at home or the coffee shop or even the beach. Is this a good thing? How do we navigate these rapids without eventually drowning? Are we allowing life to be the sum of tasks, the short term always the priority? Are we so connected that we’re actually disconnected? And has anyone had enough time to focus long enough to mull a question that requires a long, complicated answer – if there is one?
the average employee switches tasks every three minutes, is interrupted every two minutes and has a maximum focus stretch of 12 minutes.
Yet, multitasking is constant now. We do it because it is expected, but also because we believe we can – sort of. The truth, says, David Meyer, a Michigan psychologist and cognitive scientist who has run several studies on the subject, is we don’t and can’t do it well. We can if the tasks are simple and virtually automatic (think walking and chewing gum at the same time) but true, effective, efficient, meaningful multitasking is akin to jamming two TV signals down the same cable wire. You get static, not high-definition.
Closely related to trying to do two things at once is “task-switching,” which is when you flit between functions. Meyer, who heads the University of Michigan’s Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory, has tested this practice and says the results are clear: Constant nibbling from one task to another both slows and dumbs you down. It also is fatiguing and potentially harmful in terms of long-term health, and the cost of that split second you lose when you’re talking on the phone and a traffic obstacle arises.
“We’re stressing people out with multitasking demands over time,” says Grafman of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Maryland. And it will cause further decline in our health and performance, he says, if we keep it up. “The brain gets confused and looks for default mechanisms. It becomes hard to focus; we take shortcuts.”
Two Harvard professors see evidence of what they call “pseudo-attention deficit disorder” – shorter attention spans influenced by technology and the constant waves of information washing over us. When the brain gets excited over some rapid data and is stimulated, it releases a “dopamine squirt,” they say.
“We are not only working faster but even longer, and filling our limited leisure with busy activities, leading to an increasing sense of time poverty,” he says. “We have let the new technologies become a technological leash, leaving us always on call and constantly subject to interruptions and new work requirements.”
Shelly Lundberg, a labor economist who teaches at the University of Washington, studies how families behave. The economy is about time, she says, not money. And as an economist, she takes a dispassionate view.
“If you’re feeling pressed for time and too busy, well, that’s your choice,” Lundberg says. “This isn’t a poverty-stricken country; there is freedom of action. Time is of the essence . . . And what you spend your time on reflects your values.”
Daniel Hamermesh, a University of Texas economist, studied time-stress perceptions among higher-income households in the U.S. and four other industrialized countries. His study – “Stressed Out on Four Continents: Time Crunch or Yuppie Kvetch?” – found that the better off one is, the more he or she seems to complain about the time pinch. How can this be? Your opportunities and expectations grow as you grow wealthier, he theorizes, but time, which is finite, doesn’t keep up.
Although many people believe that multitasking is an effective means of dealing with the demands of modern life, the reality is humans are not able to multitask effectively. The secret to effectiveness, and indeed efficiency is to focus on one task at a time, concentrating fully.
Try focusing on completeing a single task at a time without attempting to multitask, switch off the radio, the phone, IM and e-mail, focus on and complete the task at hand. I’m sure you’ll be as suprised as I was to discover, an improvement in quality and effectiveness. Not to mention the satisfiaction of successfully completing a task!!!
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