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The Downside of 'Hypertasking'
Combuchan writes "An interesting article from AZ Central expounds upon the downside of 'hypertasking,' doing far too much at once, such as talking on the phone while doing office work at the Starbuck's has a whole host of negative side effects: irritability, impatience, sleeplessness, an overly extended workweek, and is largely unproductive. With wi-fi hotspots popping up everywhere and computing power shrinking, are we all doomed? Or, as the article indicates, it's possibily evolution of the mind at work."
Driving and talking on the phone. Obviously doing too much for the brain to handle.
I go to a school with WLAN and free use of laptops in class. I have experienced sleeplessness from the days where I was too much online, and it has been a little bit harder to remember what the teacher said.
On the other hand, I have found that my laptop is great for taking notes on, and that it makes my classes a lots easier.
This is only anecdotal evidence, of course, but I have a lot of trouble concentrating on tasks other that coding or the like using a computer - essays spring to mind. /. springs to mind - I was able to concentrate on the task at hand much more effectively.
I actually cranked out a typewriter the other day to cut down on distractions, and I found it did work.
With no instant distractions -
wait, my cell phone's ringing ...
...] "You've got mail!"
"Hello, er, hold on, my crackberry is buzzing"
[Check's ema,
Reminds me of the last school I worked at (as Network Admin.) Various support departments were e-mailing teachers a kabillion times a week, and as a result the teachers stopped reading the e-mails - there were too many. I told each department, "Hey, why don't we set up a web page, and each of you can have one paragraph on it. Then we just tell the teachers to check the web page once a day!" They would not consent to it - they said they had "too much information to share." When I pointed out that no one was reading their e-mails anyway at this point in time, they just looked at me. I'm pretty sure they were thinking "Don't confuse us with the facts!"
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I prefer hypershirking to hypertasking. That's where you know you have lots of work things to do, but you ignore them all in favor of more important personal tasks.
/. while making personal phone calls, listening to mp3s, and writing a poem for your girlfriend. Just remember to respond to work related voice-mail once a day so you don't get fired. Always complain about how much you have to do and try to look stressed. If you do that well, you can sometimes convince your coworkers to do your work. Since most spreadsheets don't have a "name" box, you get to take credit. Very effective.
For example, shopping online and reading
I've said this before, but I feel it bears repeating.
There is a difference between "being busy" and "being productive", and too damn many people don't know the difference.
I work with a guy who cannot go five minutes without being on the phone. He will be on business trips and call me to tell me how well a demo went. If there were no problems I really DON'T need to be interrupted in my work - it can wait until you get back, Rob. He will call me as he is driving in to work (a 10 minute drive) to tell me he wants to talk to me when he gets in.
He is the sort of person who feels that, if he is not talking to someone, writing a proposal, reading a proposal, etc., that he is not being productive.
Now, when he and I travel, I use the time waiting in the airport to review in my mind the things that will need to happen when we get to the customer, or long-range design plans, or just plain relax - so that when I need to work, I can do so at 100%.
All these people "hypertasking" - driving down the road making business calls that they have to "follow up on" because they cannot make proper notes, or don't have access to their information - in other words, wasting time. Wait until you can make the call, and resolve the issue with one call.
In short, be smart-lazy. Go read Heinlein's "The man who was too lazy to fail" in Time Enough For Love and be like him. When you do something, do it so as to spend as little work as possible to achive as much gain as possible. Sometimes, putting something off till tomorrow is better than doing it today (if putting it off will allow you to solve it once and for all, and trying to do it today means revisiting it tomorrow anyway).
People bitch about not having any "free time", yet every study done shows that we actually do have more "leasure time", but we fill it with so much crap that we have no "free time" left. If you feel overworked, if you feel like you have no free time, then examine all the things you do, and ask yourself "Do I *really* need to be doing this now, or am I just trying to be busy?"
www.eFax.com are spammers
Not if he accepts that others may be in an out of contact state. The man in question probably leaves his phone on when he is expecting to recieve a call he wants to catch.
This guy sounds like me. For me, leaving a message for someone is sufficient contact. I respect other people's disconnectedness.
Indeed some of my bosses wonder why they can't get a hold of my during my times off. It's for the simple reason that its my time off an I AM NOT going to work thank you very much.
Good programmers drink beer to relieve job stress.
Great programmers drink hard liquor and work best hungover.