At last I feel vindicated! For years I’ve thought the concept of multitasking was overrated and the people who bragged of their abilities to do it were mostly in love with the word itself.
Now comes an article in The New Atlantis that reports on several books and research studies on the subject. Collectively, they argue that multitasking is not as productive as we’ve been led to believe. It’s also not the hallmark of a serious intellectual. Of course, I’ve glommed onto this article, titled “The Myth of Multitasking,” with the passion of singular focus.
It cites Lord Chesterfield who wrote in the 1740s, “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.” Fast forwarding to our own era, multitasking is defined as “the human attempt to do simultaneously as many things as possible, as quickly as possible, preferably marshalling the power of as many technologies as possible.” Lord Chesterfield would cringe.
The New Atlantis article mentions several books decrying multitasking. CrazyBusy by psychiatrist Dr. Edward Hallowell offers therapies to combat it. In fact, he says, “Multitasking is a mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously.” The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss examines “single-tasking.” And a research study funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London found, “Workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.” I’m not sure how marijuana smokers were chosen as the basis of comparison.
The article is lengthy, detailed, and requires concentration, but it’s well worth reading for such statements as: “Multitasking adversely affects how you learn,” “Limiting multitasking is essential,” and “Steady attention was the default condition of a mature mind.”
Finally the article’s author, Christine Rosen, ends with this statement: “When people do their work only in the ‘interstices of their mind-wandering,’ with crumbs of attention rationed out among many competing tasks, their culture may gain in information, but it will surely weaken in wisdom.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
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