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Multitasking Harmful To Productivity
Greyfox writes: "According to a CNN article, a person who is multitasking several things takes a hit on his productivity. Oddly enough, it reads almost exactly like a description of the problem with multitasking on computers; context switches cost, especially if you have to swap a lot of crap out in order to fit the new process into memory. So basically, an employee who can stay focussed on one thing for long periods of time is going to have higher productivity than one who has to handle constant interrupts. Now if I could get my manager to buy into that ..."
That basic concept also applies to driving a car. With new drivers, many of the basic decisions are handled consciously - and there are a lot of them. As you gain experience, your subconscious can take over a lot of the work, so you no longer have to concentrate on so many different things.
New driver:
OK, the light in front of us is turning red, so we have to stop. We need to shift into first, so first we step on the clutch, shift, release the clutch. Now we also need to step on the brake, slowly, paying close attention to where the car in front of us is so we get reasonably close without hitting it. OK, there, we're stopped, I can relax now.
Experienced driver:
Damn, I knew we should have taken the freeway.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I suspect that, except for the staff geniuses and the people focused on make-or-break tasks, the answer is often that the productivity costs of multitasking is offset by its benefits.
Personally I do a lot of multi-tasking as in i'm involved in at least 2 (ideally 3) different coding tasks. I actually find myself to be very productive that way.
This was actually something i recently realized. One of the projects i am involved with was put on hold due to configuration problems with new hardware that was installed, leaving me to work on a single project until the hardware issue is solved.
I find myself getting extremely bored and tired of this single project after about 5 hours or so. I end up not being able to concentrate as well and my motivation level drops considerably compared with its level at the start of the day.
Anyone else notice anything similar?
--sidster
Play lotto? Try http://www.alottofun.com/
Well, duh.
As if computers have made people any more efficient in the first place. How often do I work on a paper for school only to check my email, run my TV Card in a window or listen to MP3's at the same time. Computers are more for entertainment these days than actual productivity. Although they can do that too....
I haven't done any formal XP projects but I've certainly had the experience of developing code alongside another person, and found it works very well.
When I'm going insane with soem development I simply announce that I'll be at home till it's fixed. This works because:
This works for me. I can do helpdesk duties because I'm not trying to do anything long term most of the time. Just trying help users. But when I'm programming any interrupt withing a 3-4 hour time span destroys all my concentration.
Curiously - a great many comapnies in the UK don't encourage home working. They don't have a "policy" in place(!).
Come on UK management: why are so many people taking up expensive office space, polluting the planet, wasting their lives on the train, in the car or bus and stressing themselves to death when they *could* be at home 60+% of the time and actually do *more* work?
Why can't women be like Hedy Lamarr - beautiful, talented and inventors of frequency-hopping spread-spectrum techn
One new age, diversity celebrating, politically correct company chick asked me, from her list of prepared questions, "Do you believe you multitask well?" So, I asked her, "Can you define multitask, so I can be sure I'm answering the question you want answered?"
"Doing more than one job at a time", she replied, "like debugging one minute, explaining an important process change to a coworker the next, and then going back to debugging." I thought on this for a moment, wondering if it was a trick question, an honest question, or perhaps an honest question that through the acts of self deception and corporate mind-fucking had become a trick question. So I figured I'd just be honest, and let the chips fall where they may. "No, I do not believe that I multitask well in environments such as this, and in fact I do not believe that anyone multitasks well in an environment such as this. When I worked at Burger King, as a teenager, I could make fries and fill drinks at the same time, but those were not mentally challenging tasks."
"I happen to think that I multitask very well, and don't find that it's all that difficult", she said to me. And it was at that very moment that I realized that I was not meant to work in the corporate environment. Which is fortunate, because I did not get that job, and I'm still self-employed. The PC company chick? She proved that she multitasked well by volunteering for every function that would keep her in meetings, all day every day, and for avoiding work so skillfully, but being seen rushing past on her way from one conference room to the next, she was promoted and now runs the department.
My point? There is a fallacy floating around in corporate America, that in order to produce more output with less time and fewer resources, we must all fill many roles. Instead of focusing on doing one job very, very well, we are supposed to compensate for the fact that jobs have been eliminated, but their roles have not. So we are expected to "multitask" -- and the harder we're expected to swap, the lower the work output, the lower the quality of it. We are never allowed to operate at our full potential because we cannot achieve the mental state necessary to do Great Work. We find ourselves staring at the same problem for half the day, only to spot it within 20 minutes first thing the next morning, before our minds are cluttered up with corporate crap.
Productivity and quality will not improve no matter how many policy changes and process controls we are subjected to. What has to change is the production budget has to rise in direct proportion to shareholder dividend reductions. We are not going to cure anorexia by starving it to death!
Being self employed, I no longer have to deal with the down-sized company (or being down-sized out of a job) and can focus on my work as long as the telephone doesn't ring. It always seems to be that client with the hairiest project who calls right at that moment when the feeling of an inspiration forming is building... and I let my wife answer the call and take a message. Gotta love it.
Warning: This signature may offend some viewers.
I often have half a dozen (or more) things going on at once, switching between screens, applications,
and even computers regularly.
Why?
Because I'm *waiting* for things to happen. Waiting for that 3 minute web page to load,
waiting for that 10 minute compile, waiting for a reply to an ICQ, or whatever.
If I couldn't multitask, I'd be sitting dumbly staring at the screen waiting for whatever task I'm doing to
become ready for my input again.
Sure, a lot of time/energy goes in the context switch. But it's time that's wasted *anyway*.
- Muggins
It should be common knowlege, except management doesn't often seem to make the connection between reality and most management books. There's a great book The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey all about deligating tasks to reduce the mmanager's stress level and allow him to focus. Unfortunately, This book alocates vary little time to task assignment across staff, such that your staff can focus on a limited number of tasks in an organized sequence. This is unfortunate since the productivity of a manager doesn't often ralate as directly as we'd all like to believe; to the productivity of his employees.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Women are great at multi-tasking. They can iron, watch tv, mind the kids and still find time to tell you all the things you have done wrong in the last two weeks.