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For years, the conventional wisdom on multitasking has been that it’s a valuable skill necessary when competing in today’s mile-a-minute world of 24-hour news, e-commerce and portable everything. It’s difficult to find a help wanted ad that doesn’t list “multitasking” among the skills an employer demands of its ideal candidate. And to some degree, certainly, multitasking is essential — back in the stone age when we had to hunt for food while fending off sabre-toothed tiger attacks, it came in awfully handy. But you can take anything too far. If I were posting a help wanted ad today — depending on the job — I would include “the ability to focus deeply on one task for extended periods of time” as an essential requirement; which today is becoming a rarer skill than “multitasking.”
For some people, multitasking isn’t just a skill — it’s a kind of addiction. My wife, for instance, finds it nearly impossible to read a book without the television on. I’ll often find her with a magazine in one hand, typing on a laptop — writing something and instant messaging simultaneously — while the TV blares. According to numerous new studies (I keep telling her), this may feel like an efficient way to be, but it’s not — in fact, “extreme” multitasking can mimic the same brain patterns as ADD. A Vanderbilt study described the effects of problem multitasking in the brain as a kind of anti-productive “response selection bottleneck,” which leads to lost time as the brain decides which task to perform. Another noted that extreme multitasking “contributes to the release of stress hormones and adrenaline” which can lead to long-term health problems and short-term memory problems. Yet another found that multitasking adversely effects the way we learn: “if you learn while multitasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily,” according to UCLA psychology professor Russell Poldrack.
What we don’t know is how this will effect the current generation of teenagers, who are far and away the most inveterate media multitaskers the world has known. “They develop a more superficial style of study and may not learn material as well,” said cognitive scientist David Meyer. “What they get out of their study might be less deep. The belief [among teens] is that they’re getting good at this and that they’re much better than the older generation at it and that there’s no cost to their efficiency.” We’ll see about that!
I’m the first to admit, I’m not immune to the multitasking bug. Right now I’m fighting a very serious urge to check my email and look at the top stories on Digg. But there’s some sort of latent Puritanical voice in my head that counsels me to do the work until it’s done. Sometimes the voice wins out, sometimes it doesn’t. [Update: I have no new messages in my inbox.]
“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.”
“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.”
- Lord Chesterfield
“To do two things at once is to do neither.”
- Publilius Syrus, Roman slave, first century B.C.
“I think your suggestion is, Can we do two things at once? Well, we’re of the view that we can walk and chew gum at the same time.”
- Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state, on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, June 2, 2004 (Armitage announced his resignation on November 16, 2004.)
Links: The Atlantic, The New Atlantis, Washingtonpost.com.
I think that age is the biggest factor in how efficient multi-tasking is.
When I was younger, I could do multiple things and retain that knowledge far easier than I can today. I used to always turn on the tv when I sat down to read a book (textbooks even) but now I cherish the silence if I need to study something.
I’m still able to recall the things I learned while multi-tasking at an earlier age, but less abel to recall things I recently learned while multi-tasking.
So at least for me, I think it is an age thing.
posted by Karen on 10-10-2008 at 10:41 am
Karen, I think that focus on efficiency is part of the myth. Multitasking may be more efficient, but the implication of these studies is that the quality of the work suffers at the expense of efficiency. So it’s a question of priorities, the way I see it.
posted by Craig on 10-10-2008 at 11:51 am
So I should stop reading this and stop watching BSG, since I’m also working on a document here at work and answering the phone? . . . well that’s no fun. (Although actually I do pause whatever I’m watching when I read an article. I’ve always been awful at reading and listening at the same time.)
ReCaptcha: objections be
posted by nutmeag on 10-10-2008 at 1:14 pm
I think this is a ‘woman’ thing most of the time. I regularly do needlepoint, watch a baseball game on TV and listen to a book on tape at the same time (no sound on the bball game). While a load of clothes is washing and supper is cooking. I had kind of put this in the same category as not ever wanting to backtrack when I’m out running errands…I though it was just some kind of anal tendency of mine.
posted by Carol on 10-10-2008 at 1:17 pm
I’m totally a multi tasker. As I read this blog I’m watching TV and I’m at work (and drinking a soda, but I don’t think that counts). Just like your wife I can’t read or do homework without the TV on, which baffles my husband who needs complete silence.
I’m not sure it’s an ADD kind of thing though, I think it’s because I grew up with so much noise around (I have 6 sisters), that it’s how I taught myself how to concentrate.
posted by Tricia on 10-10-2008 at 2:17 pm
I’m with Carol. I am constantly doing three to five things at once. I’m a full time working mom and that is the only way i can get things done. I rarely read without the TV on and I can often be found crocheting, watching tv, with dinner on, laundry going and watching my 2 year old. It’s the need to make every moment count, because we have too few!! Not to mention when you are at work and you have the phone, cell phone, email and boss all coming at you at the same time, you have to know how to switch back and forth instantaneously and not loose focus.
posted by Jessica on 10-10-2008 at 3:04 pm
It’s my belief that the word multitask is poorly defined for people. I think we confuse subconscious mental processes for conscious ones - for example, people talk about watching tv while they read or listening to music while they study and call that multitasking, or equate it to several projects going on at one time that we take turns dividing our attention towards (I was getting my lunch ready while checking my email and skimming the classifieds).
My point is, “multitasking” as we often think of it is bogus. We can’t do it. We can consciously direct our attention to one thing at a time - that’s it. Now, you might be able to subconsciously block out an outside stimulus while you write, like the tv, but you’re not watching the tv. That’s a critical difference.
The problem that these studies address is that complex tasks require focused conscious concentration for more than a fleeting moment, and when we “multitask” we think we’re getting better at handling more than one thing at once. We’re not. We’re actually getting worse at everything, because the quality and duration of our concentration suffers, and because of that the quality of our effort suffers.
You can do one thing consciously at a time well or you can con yourself into believing you’ve done 4 things at the same time in poor fashion. In reality, you did 4 things poorly in consecutive order.
posted by Rutkowskilives on 10-10-2008 at 3:21 pm
I think part of it might depend upon the activities being multi-tasked. Reading and watching TV use similar parts of the brain, so they can’t be performed effectively at the same time.
Knitting and watching the TV work better because one is processing information input (TV) and the other is a repetitive physical action.
It’s like the difference between listening to the radio while driving versus text messaging while driving.
posted by gibson8or on 10-10-2008 at 4:23 pm
The problem is that employers EXPECT you to multi-task. At my last punch-a-clock job, I did the work that four people did at the same business back in the 70s and 80s. Simultaneously. Of course, I was paid by the hour.
posted by Miss Cellania on 10-10-2008 at 5:06 pm
Reading this, cooking supper, trying to get the boys to clean their room, while trying to find out why my mother-in-law was just put in ICU 300 miles away. And this is the CALM part of my day. Ah, nothing like being a stay at home mom, it’s sooo relaxing
posted by Lorelei on 10-10-2008 at 6:54 pm
I tend to agree with what Rutkowskilives said about multitasking being a misnomer for most of the activities to which it’s normally attributed. I do think, though, that it is possible to multitask.
I work in fast food, regularly in the drive-thru. Since we rarely have enough people working at a time, this usually means I’m taking orders and collecting money/handing out food at the same time. I’ll have to remember the order of the people at the menu-board and type it in while making change for the people at the window and asking if they want condiments. Quite regularly I’ll have conversations with two people at once, one over the headset and the other at the window. While occasionally I’ll have to tell one person or the other to wait, I can generally keep a good handle on both situations.
This took a lot of practice, though. A lot of it involves what I think of as being on “autopilot”. It’s usually only when a customer makes an odd request or something similarly uncommon happens that I have to ask one person or the other to wait.
I’m not sure if even that would be considered multitasking in the strictest sense, but it’s definitely the closest I’ve felt to having my brain focused very much on two separate tasks.
Anything else –like reading and watching tv– doesn’t really feel like multitasking, since I’m usually blocking one out to focus on the other and switching off.
posted by Coaster on 10-11-2008 at 1:41 am
As a paramedic, I can attest that a certain level of multi-tasking IS possible. Some days are better than others. I usually have about five minutes to assess the patient to determine what is going on, get them on some oxygen, run an EKG, start an IV, push drugs, call the ER to give them a report, then get the patient ready to transfer inside the ER (keeping my balance while my partner dodges a multitude of morons in traffic).
Some days I’m more efficient- most likely dependent on the amount of real sleep I’ve had, glucose levels and whether or not I’ve successfully remained upright while doing patient care. For the most part, I’m successfully efficient at multi-tasking these.
Studying and driving, however, is a different matter. I don’t retain what I’ve skimmed while driving to class; my driving also suffers.
posted by drc on 10-11-2008 at 8:32 am