Is Multitasking Good For You?

People multitask everywhere these days, thinking they are being productive - Blackberrying away while walking down the street, texting while driving, talking on the phone while answering email. Seems like everyone's doing it. The only question: is it part of the solution or part of the problem?

When Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) complained that the President was trying to do too much, President Obama replied that a president must be able to do more than one thing at a time.

Perhaps there's a difference in what President Obama is facing and what the rest of us find on our plates every day. Then again, maybe it's not so different after all. We all have our challenges - they just seem to vary in terms of scope and complexity.

We need to distinguish between multiple goals and multitasking. You and I may have multiple goals: perform well at work (or find a job), manage the kids' education, look after our health, maintain good relationships with our spouse, etc.

The President has all of these on his radar screen as well, both personally and Presidentially. His version of doing well on the job also means finding a few million new jobs; while focusing on his kids' education, he also needs to do something about the plummeting quality of our educational system. You get the idea.

Multiple goals are not the problem; multiple goals and multiple areas of focus can be managed. However, creating successful outcomes in each of these multiple areas requires a kind of focus that will not be found in multitasking.

Multiple Goals vs. Multitasking

When you take on a goal, figure out what you have to deliver in order to succeed, and then determine the steps necessary, you must manage the process one step at a time. That doesn't mean you can't have multiple goals; however, it does mean that when you are working on one area, you better have your focus there if you want to do well.

Have you ever been on one of those "conference calls" with co-workers? You know the ones - people spread around the country or even the world - inevitably someone poses a question to someone else and the other person has no idea what the question is about? Been there? Maybe you were the one who didn't know what was up?

How come? Perhaps you decided the call wasn't that important and so decided to catch up on your email instead. Been there? Even better, ever been on one call and used your cell phone to make a second call? (Mute buttons hide lots of sins).

These days, you can even be in the same room and someone, perhaps most, will be "attending the meeting" while simultaneously answering messages on their Blackberries or leaving the room for a phone call.

What's up with this? Most people call it multitasking. I call it half-tasking. Half their attention is on one goal, and half their attention is on another.

When someone is busy half-tasking, often both tasks wind up being underperformed. In fact, sometimes the most important reasons for being there get missed.

Let's leave the sophomoric retort about walking and chewing gum at the same time on the sidelines here. What I'm talking about is akin to having your neurosurgeon texting while operating.

I remember working with an overwrought EVP of a major corporation, who was obviously distracted during a problem solving session with other members of the executive team. We took a break and I asked what was up.

He said that at breakfast that morning, he was reading the paper, half-watching CNN, and kinda sorta having a conversation with his wife. After a bit, his wife started crying. He offered something lame along the lines of, "It'll be OK, honey. Let's work on this tonight."

The problem? He was so engrossed in his newspaper and thoughts about the day ahead, that he hadn't even heard his wife tell him that the breast biopsy had come back positive!

Clearly, there is a sense of urgency these days, and on a number of fronts. However, anything done at speed risks the inevitable mistake. When someone tries to do two or more things simultaneously, the risk of mistakes rises exponentially. Compound this need for speed with multitasking, and we risk taking our eye off the ball just as it is about to whack us in the head.

If this is making any sense to you, then stay tuned. Next week, I'll examine the challenge of multiple goals and the need to move quickly with some great tips about how to do both.

***

You can find out more about Russell Bishop at http://www.lessonsinthekeyoflife.com. Contact Russell at: [e-mail]
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The author of Lessons in the Key of Life, Russell is an Educational Psychologist, professional life coach and management consultant, based in Santa Barbara California.

Comments

[quoting]

Charity is multidimensional. That outer form of charity is
very simple. It is just expressing joy outwardly. That
outward expression may come from the mind as good thoughts,
from the emotions as happiness, or from the physical level
as financial support or good health.

To express it outwardly, you may have to exercise your
creativity. It takes great sensitivity and great gentleness
to give into the hearts of others without abusing them or
making them feel less than the expression of spiritual love
that they are.

[Dr. Cara Barker - Huffpost Blogger]

You've opened up a real conversation, my friend. Great blog. For some time, my endeavor has been to do less, not more. I found personally, that trying to get it all done, at the same time, left me unsatisfied. I've never been primo at juggling. Around that time, I heard a poet asked: "How do you write so much? How do you write so well?" To which he chuckled: "Simple, I write three poems a say. I lower my standards!"

Sometimes, there's a lot to be said for lowering our standards, although I realize it sounds un-American. All I'm saying is that the whisper of the heart, our guidance system, speaks in the silence, and takes great time and devotion to cultivate. This is the dilemma of our times. How do we operate from that which is most central to our interior, and handle the tasks of the outer world.

This question has a lot to do with my motivation for starting a group on Facebook at the end of this week called "The Heart Whisperers." It's intention is to offer a venue for us to take time for the essential.

Appreciation and love to you, Russell, as always,
Cara

[TomFox]

I have ADD, I'm left handed and I follow the 12 Steps. What I have found for me to work is the following:

At work:

I can do at most two or three tasks "simultaneously" if they are somewhat related. For example, I can support our financial application database, add new user accounts to an application and review the specifics of an incoming support ticket. And I can do this with minimal stress (stress to me is the key). However, if I try to do two or three of the items I just listed and then add doing a completely different task say reviewing the steps to an upcoming disaster recovery exercise or verifying a server configuration or documenting a business process then I'm screwed. It seems to have to do, for me anyway, with similarity of tasks.

In my last job I tried to do it all and I crashed and burned BAD!!! In this new job, I don't even have to try to multi-task at all if I don't want to. We are always busy but I'm supported by my bosses to try to pay attention to what I'm doing, consider audit ramifications and get it right the first time. For me that is a winning combination, because as a good liberal, I'm wedded to perfectionism I think.

Getting plenty of rest is also essential. I'm in school taking two classes at night so I have to manage the amount of sleep I get.

[mamacat]

I believe that it is wrong to make a blanket statement, a generality, that multi-tasking is bad. From my own experience, there are times when it is very productive, and other times when it is not. One needs to be aware of one's circumstances and one's behavior, and decide for one's self whether or not it is appropriate. When several tasks are interrelated, bringing all of the tasks along together can be the most productive way forward. When the tasks are unrelated, it may be more productive to do them more or less separately.

Put another way, if I have to do tasks A,B, and C, and if one task affects the completion of the others, then certainly multitasking can be less stressful and more productive than trying to do one task to the exculsion of the others.

[AnAverageAmerican]

You're a type A, right?

[Bitsko]

I prefer to ask, "Is being unemployed good for you?" And the answer is a resounding, "No."

[AnAverageAmerican]

People are so easily intimidated these days. That is why CEOs get away with raping the country, people are too afraid to correct what is wrong.

[Yamunation]

Multitasking is the best way to keep your mind sharp!
At first, it can seem overwhelming, but soon enough, it becomes second nature,and it's a great feeling, and you'll be proud of yourself, seeing how many tasks you can juggle at once. Sitting at home, lookingg for a job right now, the biggest thing I miss is multitasking on the job, because I felt so productive that way. I hope my new job gives me that kind of mental challenge as well.

[wanj]

Does multi-tasking cause ADD?

[JScott]

Please folks not while driving.

Suze Orman sez she doesn't do that, one task done WELL and then the next, not several done concurrently and poorly. The pres isn't exactly doing it multi tho it more like a circuit I'll bet plus he has a good and large staff.

[Jonahson]

Multitasking has its advantages especially when under time constrain. Left handlers may be good at it but when you multitask I believe the brain is actually working very fast but not focusing two things or more at the same moment. Take music for example, we cannot differentiate each instrument at the same time. We also cannot differentiate two different notes at the same moment although we may have pre knowledge or are trained to recognize it as such.
Some chess Grandmasters gives exhibition matches where they challenge multiple lesser opponents in a row but do draw or occasionally lose when they could have won easily if it was a one to one situation. People who multitask are usually clear about their subjects.

[lennyp]

It's not the multitasking that gets us -- it's the speed with which we change tasks.

If we multitask for balance it helps keep our minds and our bodies in shape -- we evolved mulitasking.

[TomHunter]

To determine whether multi-tasking is productive or a waste, we need to know if the person in question is left or right handed. (Obama is left handed, so multi-tasking is appropriate and productive for him.)
Why? Well, due to the work of Roger Sperry [winner of the 1981 Nobel prize for this research] we know that the left hemisphere processes information in a linear sequential manner while the right hemisphere processes information in a visual simultaneous manner. A left handed person has the right hemisphere dominant [Sperry] while a right-handed person has their left hemisphere dominant.
So, if you have the visual-simultaneous hemisphere dominant, multitasking is productive because you have a better ability to interrupt a task and then resume where you left off.
If you have the linear-sequential hemisphere dominant, multitasking is wasteful because when you return to a task you interrupted, you must start over at the beginning and your prior process on that thread is lost.
Obama is left handed and so his right-hemisphere is dominant and so multi-tasking is efficient and productive for him.

[freedomisabsolute]

May be some truth, but not enough for you to tell Arthur that he can't multitask because he is right-handed. I'm sure there are great right handed multitaskers and awful left handed multitaskers. I'm right handed and my job requires a lot of multitasking, if I did it poorly I would no longer have a job. So, "only efficient" for lefties? I think more research is required.

[Arthur Rosenfeld - Huffpost Blogger]

I like this one a lot, Russell. Thanks for posting it.
I think multitasking is just another word of doing a number of things poorly.
Frankly even if the objective results were satisfactory, the price we pay in a reduction of attention, the inability to be present and live life consciously, would make it an undesirable practice. I doubt very much that any of us, upon having been hit by a bus and lying on the asphalt in the last few minutes as our life leaks out, wants our last thought to be "Boy, I got a lot done!"
The problem, I'm afraid, is a societal emphasis on result rather than process.
In my view that's something we need to address.
Arthur

[TomHunter]

Aurhur,
Are you right handed? If yes, then you're right. Multi-tasking is efficient only for left-handed people.

[lilron]

I hate multi-tasking! It's often impossible in my job (I'm an attorney, and there are days when I literally have to run from one courtroom to another while calling my assistant to bring something over on another case because so-and-so just lied through their teeth, etc.), but I do try to make a habit of focusing on one thing at a time. I check email 3 times a day--when I arrive, after lunch, and before I go home. I do have a pop-up that gives a brief description; if I'm waiting for something to come through I'll get it then, but not otherwise. I check voicemail at the same three times, and block off an hour during the morning and afternoon where I won't take phone calls. I have to, else I KNOW I'll forget something, a client will be furious, or I won't put something in a brief or motion that was critical. Doing this often allows me to leave at a reasonable time, hit the gym, make dinner, and spend QUALITY time with my boyfriend, who works under the same grind. I think people would do much better to focus consistently on one thing at a time, at least as much as possible, and I'd be willing to bet people were less stressed and more productive as a result.

[lewes17266]

It is possible to be so busy that you lose yourself and become disconnected from the world around you. It is like being unconscious. I think it is good to be able to get a lot done but not to the degree that you lose awareness of what you are doing or what is going on around you. Stillness is better.

I love the commentary here!

[Kari Henley - Huffpost Blogger]

I like the concept of "half tasking"
I certainly have been guilty of that, and have experienced the frustration when other's do the same.

There is a difference, for sure.
Thanks for the reminder to try to flow in the present moment as often as possible!