Multitasking Considered Detrimental

djvaselaar sends along an article from The New Atlantis that summarizes recent research indicating that multitasking may be detrimental to work and learning. It begins, "In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: '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.' To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one's time; it was a mark of intelligence... E-mails pouring in, cell phones ringing, televisions blaring, podcasts streaming--all this may become background noise, like the 'din of a foundry or factory' that [William] James observed workers could scarcely avoid at first, but which eventually became just another part of their daily routine. For the younger generation of multitaskers, the great electronic din is an expected part of everyday life. And given what neuroscience and anecdotal evidence have shown us, this state of constant intentional self-distraction could well be of profound detriment to individual and cultural well-being."

Comments

They forgot

[Hao Wu]

Thinking about opposite sex can be very distracting - or same sex if you are gay man.

Re:One-size-fits-all doesn't fit all

[thealsir]

And I am the opposite. I can't do tasks that require a lot of focus efficiently when other people are around, or there are distractions. I tend to hate being in a programming environment where there are other people talking, or people walking around everywhere. It breaks my concentration over and over again.

In fact, I can't even listen to music or anything while doing focused work. It's too much of a distraction. I don't know how people listen to music or watch TV while doing something focused.

One guy I know can't fall asleep unless there's a TV on. That I find utterly insane. I didn't grow up with too much TV, but I always find the hiss of the CRT and obnoxious noise to be a huge distraction to anything.