Multi-Tasking

I have never been one for MULT-TASKING - at least, not if I need to really think about what I am doing. (I can talk on the phone while playing free cell on the computer... but only if chit-chatting about daily events...)

If the task requires thought, I can only focus on one thing at a time... relatively undisturbed. In order to be really productive, I need to go into a mind-space and shut the door... (Which is probably why, as a teenager, and later as a teacher, I was most productive studying, planning or marking in a quiet, solitary space.)

Why?... Perhaps I am too easily distracted.

But we are not all the same: my brother, for example, always did his homework at the coffee table in front of the TV (during commercials - before the invention of remote control, so he was probably good at blocking out sounds around him). Later, when doing his PhD, he worked best sitting in the living room with his two sons, toddlers at the time, playing nearby... The silence of the library was detrimental to his ability to focus!

But these days the world is caught up in the idea of "MULT-TASKING" - trying to do more than one thing at the same time. And even I try to MULTI-TASK ... perhaps because this physical and mental dexterity is portrayed as a virtue... Or perhaps because a lot of what I do doesn't require my complete attention...!

So I wander around the house, delivering laundry to a bedroom, noticing lint on the carpet (I'll pick it up later). Then, returning clean towels to the bathroom, I notice a dirty sink and stop and clean it... And so my day goes, from one small task to the next... And at the end of it, I often don't remember a single thing I've done! Is this MULTI-TASKING? (Or simply "grazing" at housework?)

So I was interested - while MULTI-TASKING (i.e., waiting in a doctor's office and reading) - to see an article on MULTI-TASKING. (October 2010 Canadian edition of Readers's Digest magazine) As I skimmed the article, afraid I would be called in before I was done, I noticed three interesting points:














First, that the concept of MULT-TASKING originated with computers. They were (supposedly) able to do more than one thing at the same time... (Though, like me, my computer can't QUICKLY do two things at once. In fact, the whole system slows down just trying!)

Second, that it takes 15 minutes to refocus on a task after an interruption... (Hmmm. Should I assume that most of my day is spent "refocusing"...? And that's why I get so little DONE?!)

And third, (a point I was jotting down just as the doctor called my name...) that our IQ goes down 10 points if we are trying to more than one thing at a time...

I don't know about you, but I need every IQ point I can muster!!