Hooked On Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price

Zecheus writes "In the New York Times: 'Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls, and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.'"

Comments

Basically

[phantomfive]

If you want to be good at multi-tasking, practice multi-tasking.
If you want to be good at focusing, practice focusing.
If you want to be good at both, practice both.

There is no false dichotomy that you can only be good at one or the other, and neither one comes naturally. By nature we are only good at focusing on whatever attracts us emotionally in the moment, focusing on boring things, or multi-tasking on various boring things both take practice. So do what you want and stop worrying.

Re:Basically

[phantomfive]

Ask any chess player and they will definitely have advice on how to focus better.

I can tell what I have found in my experience. Definitely exercise, it helps calm a lot of crazy distractions in your head. Get enough sleep and eat well, too. Alekhine said, "A brain without sugar is no brain" and Bobby Fischer would drink fruit juice to help him focus.

From there, try to get rid of things that will distract you. Sometimes they are surprising things, like not being clear what you are trying to do. Tal mentions that one time during a game, in a difficult position, he was having trouble focusing and thought about something else for nearly 20 minutes; he just couldn't force himself to focus. Then he realized that the position was too deep, it was impossible for any human to calculate all the possible branches. Once he realized that, his goal changed, and he was able to focus again. So the 'distraction' in that case was the fact that his task was impossible.

I really do find playing chess useful for this, because you know you haven't been focusing as soon as you lose a piece. It can help you notice when you are losing focus and try to diagnose the problem, and figure out ways to work around them.

Re:Basically

[phantomfive]

I can tell you my thought and experience, though others may not agree with me.

I have found that becoming good at multi-tasking is a combination of two things: becoming good at focusing, and becoming good at quickly switching focus. The guy in the article didn't seem like a multi-tasker, he seemed like someone with ADD. He had trouble focusing on anything.

So, as an example, to minimize switching times, you can do things like having different projects open on different desktops. Choose to work on one, and block out all thought of the other, until it is time to work on it. If an email comes, focus completely on the email until it is done, then go back to your other project. Whatever it is, focus completely on it. You need to detach yourself from the projects emotionally so they are not still nagging on you when you are not working on them. This is similar to leaving work at work, and not worrying about it when you get home.

Another example would be driving, when you first start driving, there is so much to do, it is hard to focus on it all. But soon you can switch easily between looking at the speedometer, checking your mirrors, looking in front, checking the temperature gauge, etc. It isn't so much that you are focusing on multiple things at once so much as you've gotten good at switching between them all, and can do them all without any trouble. I suspect if you could fit texting into the rotation in short enough increments of time, you could do that too, but I don't think you can divide the task of texting into such small pieces.

Professional Starcraft players are the same way, if you look at what they do, it is amazing how they can focus efficiently on so many things at once. Also, the first time you try to do it yourself, it is exhausting and hard to even do a quarter of what they do. Then slowly, after practicing, you can begin to build units continually while assigning them to different places, then you are able to do it while simultaneously fighting a battle, then you are able to fight two battles simultaneously. They way to do it, once again, is to switch focus between all the tasks.

So this is some anecdotal (and I think reasonable) evidence that multi-tasking is doable. It would be interesting to see some studies done along these lines.

Re:Basically

[EL_mal0]

But that study wasn't done with people who were just learning to drive, so I think your point has a little less weight. I think this bit from the article I linked is an apt response:

Researchers Jason Watson and David L. Strayer go on to say that "inattention blindness associated with cell phone conversations makes drivers unaware of their own driving impairments." That's research-speak for "Hey, I am not even aware of my unawareness while gabbing with my pals. I am special. I can do this!"

Re:Basically

[anegg]

Brains have a limited amount of "attention" resource to focus on problems, just like computers have a limited amount of CPU time to give to processes. Multi-tasking on the brain is similar to multi-tasking on a CPU. You can do it, but it does impair efficiency. The more frequently you switch tasks, the more switching overhead you incur. Perhaps you can improve your task-switching speed to minimize overhead.

The process of learning to drive is a bit different (I think) than normal multi-tasking demands. In driving, you are training your brain to take care of certain functions without conscious attention - developing low-level subroutines (checking gauges, mirrors, monitoring distance to the cars around you). To the extent that your "multi-tasking" can involve tasks that can be done subconsciously, you can probably improve your multi-tasking ability by training your brain to use low-level subroutines.

I don't think of "multi-tasking" as the development of semi-autonomous capabilities like I describe above. To me, multi-tasking is when you are switching conscious attention from one thing to another, such as having a conversation with one person while undertaking another focused task. To a certain extent, you can balance the attention you pay to one or the other, but there is probably a cost. Your focused task may proceed more slowly, or you may realize at some point that although you have been automatically responding to your conversational partner, you haven't really been "hearing" what they are saying. If your focused task is "driving your car in traffic" I hope the impact is to the latter rather than the former.

With this in mind, I think there are variations in multi-tasking ability among people, and I think that it may be possible to achieve some improvements in multi-tasking abilities through practice, but in general the article matches my experience and beliefs. I think that multi-tasking may feel like more is being accomplished but actual measured performance will suffer. If some of the tasks involve synchronous interaction with other people, the multi-taskers perception of improved experience will probably come at a cost to the other folks with whom the multi-tasker is interacting.

Re:Basically

[Belial6]

Another example would be driving, when you first start driving, there is so much to do, it is hard to focus on it all. But soon you can switch easily between looking at the speedometer, checking your mirrors, looking in front, checking the temperature gauge, etc. It isn't so much that you are focusing on multiple things at once so much as you've gotten good at switching between them all, and can do them all without any trouble.

While I agree with what you say, I don't believe that it is the whole story with new drivers, or even the biggest piece of a multi-piece problem. Bigger than efficient task switching is that experienced drivers DON'T focus on many of the tasks you point out. Frequently they ignore some tasks that new drivers are told to focus on, and often the ones they don't ignore, they only watch for a change that would call greater attention. I can honestly say that I haven't looked at my temperature gauge more than a couple of times in years. Why? Because I have good reliable cars that don't over heat. I do glance at my dash, and take note if anything looks out of place, but the temperature gauge does not get any actual focus. Even the speedometer isn't used as much as new drivers a lead to believe. After years of driving, we get good at gauging our speed based on the feel of the car and looking out the window. We tend to use the car's speedometer as a calibration tool for our own biological speedometer. New drivers on the other hand, have to keep looking at the speedometer because they are just not as good at gauging their speed. New drivers are also told to read all the street signs. That is just dangerous. With experience, they learn to ignore the signs that don't matter. They stop looking for signs where they won't find them.

Professional Starcraft players are the same way, if you look at what they do, it is amazing how they can focus efficiently on so many things at once. Also, the first time you try to do it yourself, it is exhausting and hard to even do a quarter of what they do. Then slowly, after practicing, you can begin to build units continually while assigning them to different places, then you are able to do it while simultaneously fighting a battle, then you are able to fight two battles simultaneously. They way to do it, once again, is to switch focus between all the tasks.

This is actually also a good example of NOT paying attention. These guy don't fight multiple battles just buy switching tasks quickly. A major component of what they do is knowing their troop capabilities, and know what will happen when they are not looking. Then they stop looking instead of watching to see what happens. They issue a command, and move to the next group. Much like looking at the speedometer, they might pop over periodically to calibrate their assumptions to reality, but they don't focus on the unimportant details. As much as people don't want to admit it, driving is accomplished through huge amounts of assumption. New drivers are regularly told to perform the impossible. Old drivers don't recognize that their assumptions are not physically taking place. It reminds me of the old saying "You know what happens when you Assume don't you? You make an Ass out of U and Me." That saying is always followed in my head with "And you get up in the morning because you assume that you still have a job." You eat your meal at a restaurant because you assume your credit card will not be declined. You open your front door because you assume that the outside air is not filled with a poison gas....". Life is impossible to live without making millions of assumptions every day. Likewise driving is impossible to do safely without making tons of assumptions.

So, while I agree with your sentiment on task switching, just as important is the ability to make good assumptions.

Of course the fact that every single 'study' I have seen done on 'distracted driving' has been horribly biased to produce the results that cell phones are evil doesn't help the whole discussion.

step #1, ignore the phone when it rings

[petes_PoV]

We've conditioned ourselves to stop doing almost everything in order to answer a phonecall. Even if we have no idea who's calling, we are prepared to interrupt most activities and (unforgivably) most people in order to speak to a little voice who almost certainly only called because they want something.

I say, let them wait. If it's important they can leave a message - although there's nothing that a normal person can tell us that can't bear being delayed for an hour or two. If they are prepared to do some work themselves, they can TEXT you, instead.

Re:step #1, ignore the phone when it rings

[DeadDecoy]

Ya, I have similar habits, which is funny because I'm considered the 'tech' guy in my family. I have no cable, leave my landline unplugged (to stop annoying solicitors), and leave my cell at home on silent. Email is about as close as I get to 'instant messaging' nowadays. And this helps me focus on whatever tasks need my immediate attention (like commenting on slashdot :D).
My family (parents and siblings), interestingly enough, finds this annoying because they want instant access. I think because I spend more time around computers than them, I'm a bit disenchanted as to the utility, or life-quality improvements yet-another-device will add to my life.

I agree

[pcraven]

I used to be a good programmer until I got into management. The flood of information, calls, and e-mails that came in seriously did a number on my brain. It felt like it was being remapped.

I've gotten out of that field, but I still feel the effects from it. Now I've taken to learning Russian. I think I enjoy it because of the concentration required.

all these always connected people make me laugh

[alen]

i carry a blackberry and an iphone and think tech is great, but some of these people that are trying to do 5 things at once look like ADHD or OCD cases that can't do one thing right. they get halfway done with something until the next email or IM comes in and it's off to the next thing.

i don't even have the corporate IM client installed because i think it's annoying. worst thing is to be constantly interrupted while writing SQL code or reading an interesting article by someone asking about something not important that can easily be done over email. where i'll read it when i have the chance. i already have all kinds of alerts set up for a real emergency that needs to be looked at right away. the worst people are those that want to call on the phone about things that can be done over email and need to have a written record of communication

it still amazes me that we're in a software dev reboot where our most used OS's and software are going from multi-gigabyte sizes to less than 1GB on mobile devices. and yet it's still full of bugs. sometimes worse than the bloat of desktop software. this may be a reason why. people don't concentrate and are always jumping from one thing to the next.

No time to read this? Read this.

[PatPending]

This article is immensely helpful (print link with pop-up):

No time to read this? Read this.

Of the three techniques mentioned, the "Pomodoro Technique" works best for me:

I start each day by making a log of things to do, then tackle each in 25-minute intervals called Pomodoros. When a Pomodoro is over, I mark an X on the log next to the item I am working on, then take a refreshing 3- to 5-minute break. Nothing must be allowed to interrupt a Pomodoro. If co-workers barge in, Mr. Cirillo advises trying to defer the conversation.

Re:Future Shock

[vlm]

Published in 1970 -- based on a 1965 article -- and still timely today.

Toffler is pretty much obsolete. He never really understood the shifts the labor market.

Toffler's theory was the middle class would become rich by taking lower-upper class type jobs and educations, leading to the stress of how to spend all that money on things they don't really culturally understand. Kind of like watching folks flail around randomly during the housing bubble run-up when they suddenly got more money than they could handle, but on a larger scale. You could summarize his book to an analysis of the cultural stresses of an upwardly mobile society.

The way it turned out, is the jobs disappeared. Everyone but the extremely rich is poorer. Rather than stressing about which ipod to buy, and what that means culturally, for most people, the stress is the more traditional concerns but with more financial pressure, like how to pay the mortgage on a walmart greeter salary, or wouldn't it be nice to afford health care. You could summarize reality to being a stressed downwardly mobile society.

His "shattering stress and disorientation" turned out to be "I lost my job and there are no jobs in my field in this country anymore" rather than his idea of "how will I fit into the country club conspicuous consumption crowd". Or the "shattering stress and disorientation" of "we've downsized your five person department to ... you, and you get to do all the work yourself. Now hurry up and meet the growth goals or there's four people in line to replace you"

more on multitasking limitations

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only are human brains limited to 2 tasks by the medial prefrontal cortex, some grey matter subsystems are not reentrant.
Try these simple experiments:
1) Draw a cirlce with the right hand while drawing a triangle with the left hand.
2) Start to make clockwise circles with one of your feet. While continuing the foot action, draw a circle in the counter clockwise direction.
YMMV