Does multi-tasking work?
I'm constantly multi-tasking
because my gut feels that the technique makes me more efficient.
Surely I'm saving time by burning CDs while writing a blog post, or by
spending my morning going back and forth between laundry, weeding, and
watering. Right?
Most scientists would
say, "Wrong!" Psychiatrist Richard Hallowell describes multitasking as a
“mythical activity in
which people believe they can perform two or more tasks
simultaneously.” Various scientific studies suggest that human
multi-tasking results in lower efficiency rather than a time
saving. On the other hand, one recent study does show that our
brains may be capable of focusing on two tasks at once, though not more.
After reading a bunch of
scientific articles about multi-tasking, I've come to the conclusion
that my typical daily schedule may not really be multi-tasking.
Generally, I'm sliding tasks with significant time lags together to
create a cohesive whole rather than trying to do two chores at the same
moment. Doing
laundry in the wringer washer has several periods of sustained
activity with twenty minutes of wait in between. Watering has an
even longer lag period --- I set up the sprinkler, then let it run for
an hour before moving on to another zone. Weeding fits nicely
into the laundry and watering gaps since it's a linear task that
doesn't lose anything by being interrupted. (In fact, I often
cherish the breaks.) When multi-tasking, I also try to make only
one of the tasks brain intensive, interspersing a physical chore like
pushing CDs into the drive with a mental workout like blogging.
Popular wisdom holds
that women are better at multi-tasking than men, though scientific
studies don't tend to back this supposition up. Maybe women have
figured out my method of multi-tasking without doing two
brain-intensive things at once? Until I see a study bemoaning the
inefficiency of my type of multi-tasking, I'll continue to jump back
and forth between tasks and will believe I'm getting a lot done.
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