Archive: Opinions

We live in a very busy world. The pace of our modern lives continues to increase at an alarming rate.  Each day we hustle the kids off to school in the morning, hurry to work, run errands, and rush back home in the evening.  While driving to work, we drink coffee, shave, put on makeup, talk on our cell phones and even text   This frenzied pace causes untold stress and agitation.  For many, this has become a regular way of life so much so that we have embraced a word to describe our efforts to respond to the many pressing demands on our time-multitasking.

The term has been used to describe the parallel processing abilities of computer.  Today multitasking is now shorthand for the human attempt to do simultaneously as many things as possible, as quickly as possible, rather than relying on the more ancient and time proven method of accomplishing one task at a time.

In the last decade, people around the world sensed a kind of exuberance about the possibilities of multitasking. Advertisements for new electronic gadgets, particularly handheld digital devices, celebrated the notion of using technology to accomplish several things at once.  Some life coaches even offer advice on “How to Multitask” with suggestions about giving your brain’s “multitasking hot spot” an appropriate workout.

However, challenges to the benefits of multitasking have begun to emerge. Numerous studies have shown the sometimes fatal danger of using cell phones and other electronic devices while driving, for example, and several states have now made that particular form of multitasking illegal.  Insurance companies report a frightening rise in automobile accidents involving one or more drivers who were distracted by texting.

In the business world, where concerns about time-management are a top priority, warnings about workplace distractions spawned by multitaskers are on the rise. In 2005, the BBC reported, “Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.”

Multitasking might also be taking a toll on the economy. One study by researchers at the University of California at Irvine monitored interruptions among office workers.  They found that workers took an average of twenty-five minutes to recover from interruptions such as phone calls or answering e-mail and return to their original task. In a 2007 New York Times article, a business analyst estimated that extreme multitasking, known as information overload, costs the U.S. economy $650 billion a year in lost productivity.

According to medical experts, our brains are not equipped for multitasking.  It is a poor long-term strategy for learning and adversely affects how you learn. In addition, task-switching leads to time lost as the brain determines which task to perform.   Additional research has also found that multitasking contributes to the release of stress hormones and adrenaline, which can cause long-term health problems if not controlled, and contributes to the loss of short-term memory.

Humans are really built to focus. When we force ourselves to multitask, we are driving ourselves to perhaps be less efficient in the long run even though it sometimes feels like we are being more efficient. .  This writer has burned many a bagel in the toaster oven distracted by emails on my computer or conversations on my cell phone.   People who have achieved great things often credit their success to a finely honed skill for paying attention.  When asked about his particular genius, Sir Isaac Newton responded that if he had made any discoveries, he “owed more to patient attention than to any other talent.”

Perhaps it's time to stop texting while driving.  You might enjoy your child’s sporting event if your ear is not glued to your cell phone.  And the bagels might come out perfectly toasted if you simply stand by and focus on the task at hand.  By doing less, you might accomplish more. In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: “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.”  And that is to the point. 

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