Your Brain On Multi-tasking

We've been hearing/reading more and more about how multi-tasking actually reduces productivity. This is counter intuitive to what we've been told in the past as project managers, or general managers in business for that matter - the more you can get done, the more you can juggle at any given time, the better equipped you are to handle the job, right? Mmm.. wrong! At least according to a host of research (read here, here, and here for starters).

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying PMs shouldn't be able to walk and talk at the same time or do more than two things at once. I just think at some point we as a general society became intensely focused on doing SO much that we are no longer paying attention to the details and things are falling through the cracks in this multi-tasking focused society.

Check out the 2.09 minute video below from http://www.brainrules.net/. It's a humorous look at how too many tasks can overwork your brain into an unproductive state. Ok, so let's hope you're not as bad as the guy in the video, but it IS supposed to be funny!




Did you learn anything, dog? anyone going to buy the Dander500?

From an article titled "The Myth of Multitasking":

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.” To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one’s time; it was a mark of intelligence. “This steady and undissipated attention to one object, is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.”

I do hurry, hustle and bustle - agitation is something I try very hard to avoid these days (thank ye maturity!) though if I'm in my vehicle... I'm still working on finding my patience <>

As always - Enjoy!