The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car. These experts have some basic advice. Check e-mail messages once an hour, at most. Listening to soothing background music while studying may improve concentration. But other distractions - most songs with lyrics, instant messaging, television shows - hamper performance. Driving while talking on a cell phone, even with a hands-free headset, is a bad idea.You can do four things at once: it just takes you six times as long.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
The Myth of Multitasking
Also from this morning's (3/25) New York Times. New studies on multitasking confirm what my instincts had told me -- it's a myth.
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I saw a CNN special on this a couple of weeks ago saying something very similar. The study said that most people can perform work more efficient when concentrating on one thing instead of multiple things. I actually decided to do put this to the test. Before Christmas, I had so many things I needed to accomplish, like college stuff and other things. So I but a list of objectives that I needed to complete within a day and I devoted a whole day to one topic and I was able to complete it within that day. Other similar projects that I was working on were taking me forever to complete because I would jump from one to another. It was really bothersome.
This is sort of random, but I heard that women tend to be better at multi-tasking than men...so Rob....lol.
That being said, I think that jumping from task to task isn't a good strategy for multitasking. There must be some sort of limit and once you cross that barrier, you go from efficiency to overload.
And speaking of distracted drivers- I saw a guy going 75mph (approx) and had a newspaper COMPLETELY proped up against his stearing wheel. I was horrified!!!!
I was actually just thinking about this sort of thing. Saturday I was driving up to Quinnipiac and I saw a woman wearing one of those hands-free ear phone things. Personally, I don't know why those things were even invented or why they're considered an improvement. It's not the holding onto the cell phone that's the issue. Anyone can drive with one hand while adjusting the radio or whatever. What they can't do is talk on the phone and drive at the same time. One time i tried just answering my phone while driving and ended up in the other lane. It's just a bad idea and those little head phones don't do anything except let people think it's ok to multitask while driving. Driving is multitasking already. This all fits in with our current Bio chapter too...the brain and all of its inner workings and such. It is a complex organ, but it does have limits.
Yea leah, I once saw a woman who had her head down while driving reading a book (IT was easy to see from sitting up in an expedition.) It really was scary because she was drifting all over the place.
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