I’ve know for quite awhile now that I’m completely incapable of multi-tasking. I’m much better at chunking tasks than working on them simultaneously. But honestly, until I read this article, I thought I was alone in my inadequacy. Well, if self-awareness weren’t enough evidence, the multi-tasking exercise linked to “Only 2% of People Can Actually Multitask” sealed the deal. I stopped after 2 exercises. It was completely hopeless. I’d make a terrible bouncer.
An ancillary article by Peter Bregman from Forbes Magazine entitled, “When Multitasking is a Good Thing” gave me cause to think. As it turns out, Mr. Bregman makes a good case for when multitasking is, indeed, good. And efficient. “You can multitask as long as you’re doing two things that don’t tax the same parts of your brain. Email while on a conference call? Bad idea. But exercise and commuting? It’s a perfect multitasking marriage.” He cites how he multitasks as he rides his bike to work every day. He thereby exercises AND commutes. Just as I, curing MY commute, can simultaneously catch up on the news AND commute - two things that I’ve identified as important to me. Other examples might include making your weekly call to your mother while on the treadmill. Or reading while taking a bath. Bregman further contends that each such activity “..are enriched when combined with the other."
Despite this encourage news about making the most of my commute, I am at heart, a chunker. A great page sponsored by Bucks Community College offers the following helpful instructions on effective chunking for students (so does Tony Robbins, incidently, but I find him annoying):
Some basic principles of "chunking" include:
- Break up study into 45 minute to 1 hour "chunks," focusing on one subject at a time. This is the maximum time most people can stay attentive.
- Break up reading or study by units of information (chapters/topics). This way, your attention will be focused on a topic for easier filing and retrieval.
- As you read, annotate text in order to better understand and label the information you are processing for future reference.
- After lectures and reading, add new information to maps or outlines so that it is "filed" appropriately.
- Write a summary after you complete each "chunk" of reading or at the end of your lecture notes, so that you can check your understanding and clarify what you have learned. This assists the way you "label" your information "files," and it will be easier to determine which "file" to open when you come across new information.
- Look for connections and relationships between ideas-- categories, similarities/differences, cause/effect, etc. Using visual organizers and asking questions at all cognitive levels will help you to do this.
Technology has only made us seem better at multitasking, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Gadget multitasking is even a thing. In another Forbes article titled, “Gadget Multitasking is Actually Costing You Business,” author Cheryl Isaac jumps on the now-proven bandwagon that multitasking is horrible for productivity. "Chronic multitasking could leave you bogged down with irrelevant information, experts note in the [Andrews] study, leaving you unable to filter out what’s relevant to your immediate goal.” This phenomenon is exacerbated by technology, which is not only often one of the elements we’re trying to multitask, it also provides an abundance of apps and programs that are designed to HELP us multitask. Isaac lists the following reasons to stop gadget multitasking altogether:
The gadget makesyour contacts feel irrelevant. Unless you’re a suave techie with information-sharing presentations stored on your mobile device or tablet, lose the gadget when you meet with people. Concentrate on the person, the goal, the conversation before you.
The gadget makes you look like an amateur. You’ve spent a week trying to woo a prospective client when you start to gadget-multitask. Soon, you find that you’ve forgotten everything she has told you, misplaced her information or profile, forgotten to return her call, emailed the proposal a week later, called her by someone else’s name, and then asked her to repeat herself. Well, you can guess what happens next can’t you?
The gadget is the window to your social media craze. An @reply here, a status update there, an Instagram later, and you suddenly stumbleupon something hilarious, while another thing is so goofy, you pause to reddit and then the next thing you know, you’ve forgotten where you even left off. So, how about losing the gadget while you work on the proposal, the project, the prospect?
Incidently, the article concluded with an appeal to follow her on Twitter.
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