It is official: It's not terribly smart—or efficient—to text message a friend to meet up at yoga [0] class, listen to NPR [1], instant message a friend in Oregon, make sure that my dog isn't chewing anything too valuable, note that my RSS feed has some juicy gossip on Brittany Spears, and try to write a post about multi-tasking.
Who knew?
Experts say that multi-tasking is inefficient because our minds aren't designed to focus on more than one thing at a time. Still, I'd swear that I can juggle at least two or three things at once without skipping a beat.
According to an article in the New York Times [2], however, multi-tasking slows us down and increases the likelihood that we're going to make mistakes. (Ah, so that explains my error rate.) Our brains have an amazing capacity [2] to absorb and process information, but they are incapable of concentrating on more than one thing at a time.
A team of scientists proved this through a series of MRI's that illustrate how our minds manage two different tasks at the same time. It turned out that our minds lose a second or so each time we switch gears.
Losing a second is no big deal when you're emailing a friend. But it may be a very big deal if you're talking on a cellphone while careening down the freeway.
The article touches on several interesting studies about multi-tasking, but the bottom line is clear: You'll be better off if you read this without trying to do try to do 10,000 other things at the same time.
Meanwhile, here are a few tips for those of us who cannot seem to do one thing at a time:
- Check your email once per hour
- Listen to soothing music (yikes, does that mean muzak??), not songs with lyrics
- Don't instant message friends while working
- Don't watch TV while working
- Don't drive while talking on the cellphone, even with a headset
- Don't let technology control your life
- Try meditation [2] (this wasn't in the article, but it belongs on this list)