First, a short quiz!
At this very moment, are you:
1. Eating or drinking
2. Listening to something
3. Keeping an eye of your email/IM/etc.
4. Toggling between reading blogs and your work.
If you can answer "none of the above," you win a prize.
I've always seen multitasking as 1+1=3, an efficient use of time that allows you to get much more done. Then I read Walter Kirn's article in the November 07 Atlantic Monthly.
According to Kirn, "Multitasking messes with the brain in several ways. At the most basic level, the mental balancing act that it requires--the constant switching and pivoting--energize regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination and simultaneously appear to shortchange some of the higher areas related to memory and learning. We concentrate on the act of concentration at the expense of whatever it is that we're supposed to be concentrating on."
He cites an experiment at UCLA that studied a group of 20-somethings who were asked to sort index cards in two trials, one in silence and one while listening for specific tones in a series of randomly presented sounds. The findings: "The subjects managed to sort the cards just as well with the musical distraction--but they had a much harder time remembering what, exactly, they'd been sorting once the experiment was over."
Also: "Certain studies find that multitasking boosts the level of stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and wears down our systems through biochemical friction, prematurely aging us. In the short term, the confusion, fatigue, and chaos merely hamper our ability to focus and analyze, but in the long term, they may cause it to atrophy."
Scary stuff. Instead of learning to meditate, maybe we should start with trying to eat breakfast without reading the paper or watching TV.
TOMORROW: I put Kirn to the test, attempting A DAY WITHOUT MULTITASKING.
UPDATE: AP reported that someone she knew suffering from the early symptoms of Alzheimer's was told to multitask more! to ward off further regression. Cooking was recommended in particular. Interesting!
At this very moment, are you:
1. Eating or drinking
2. Listening to something
3. Keeping an eye of your email/IM/etc.
4. Toggling between reading blogs and your work.
If you can answer "none of the above," you win a prize.
I've always seen multitasking as 1+1=3, an efficient use of time that allows you to get much more done. Then I read Walter Kirn's article in the November 07 Atlantic Monthly.
According to Kirn, "Multitasking messes with the brain in several ways. At the most basic level, the mental balancing act that it requires--the constant switching and pivoting--energize regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination and simultaneously appear to shortchange some of the higher areas related to memory and learning. We concentrate on the act of concentration at the expense of whatever it is that we're supposed to be concentrating on."
He cites an experiment at UCLA that studied a group of 20-somethings who were asked to sort index cards in two trials, one in silence and one while listening for specific tones in a series of randomly presented sounds. The findings: "The subjects managed to sort the cards just as well with the musical distraction--but they had a much harder time remembering what, exactly, they'd been sorting once the experiment was over."
Also: "Certain studies find that multitasking boosts the level of stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and wears down our systems through biochemical friction, prematurely aging us. In the short term, the confusion, fatigue, and chaos merely hamper our ability to focus and analyze, but in the long term, they may cause it to atrophy."
Scary stuff. Instead of learning to meditate, maybe we should start with trying to eat breakfast without reading the paper or watching TV.
TOMORROW: I put Kirn to the test, attempting A DAY WITHOUT MULTITASKING.
UPDATE: AP reported that someone she knew suffering from the early symptoms of Alzheimer's was told to multitask more! to ward off further regression. Cooking was recommended in particular. Interesting!
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