Multitasking is a curse on today's society. This is the conclusion of extensive double-blinded, randomized, placebo controlled, muti-arm study.
Well, in reality, this is my anecdotal study, but hear me out.
Do you want to know why customer service has become so ""canned", so impersonal? Do you ever gaze upon a coworker's illogical email with bewilderment? Do you know why when you go to the doctor you have to fill out a questionarire, tell the receptionist your issue, wait, repeat it to the nurse, wait and then wait a long time to only repeat it to the doctor, who seems to have to go to the bathroom, urgently? Do you stay up late at night worring about the 7 things that you need to do the next day?
Welcome to the horrible philosophy of multitasking.
The idea that you can get many things done at the same time goes against human nature. If I want to type this blog entry and watch the news, and watch the LA traffic out the window...I will only do a little of each, for a little bit, constantly loosing my concentration and then having to remember where I left off. I will be constantly discovering unexplored problems that will make my mind wonder and worry. I will then have to pause, remember what I was doing and try to get back in the same mind frame.
I have an insidious tool on my computer.
It is a program that is on all the time and tracks when I am "on -line" and it is tied to my calendar, so it show everyone that I am "available". Or worse, it tell others that I am busy, this is the time where I will be interrupted the most. Usually these interruption come with a big lead in apology and explanation as to the urgency of the matter that is intruding into my day.
I have a team member that is terribly bothered when someone is not online. He starts to contact (interrupt) everyone else on the team to find out of we have heard from this person, where they might be, what might they be doing, what in my opinion is urgent in their day.
I work on the plane. I work late at night in bed, when I am on the road, I work sunday evenings. Why? Becuase it is my only refuge, my fortress of solitude from the endless emails that say "yep", "agreed", "good job", "but what if".
I travel and do reports about my trips. These reports are highly techincal and specific. They must weave a number of different issues, follow up items, statuses, exact counts on medications, expiration dates, serial numbers, documents with exact dates and versions, federal law needs to be endlessly referenced.
In short it requires absolute concentration.
If I sit down in my home office to write a report in the middle of a day, it may take me 5 hours. If I do that same report offline later that night, it takes me 2.
You see, I believe that when we concentrate, we are indeed multitasking: remembering, sorting, expaining, thinking ahead, linking at one moment is time all of our abilities, talents, memory, opinion and experience into one task. If we interrupt that flow, we only do surface work: "enough to get by" and it takes us a lot longer.
Have you ever been asked what you did yesterday and you begin with uh, hmmm, well, let me see...You were multitasking yesterday. That is why you can't remember right away.
Have you ever asked someone about an email they sent an hour ago and they say "wait, let me find it and read it to see what I said". Dirty multitasker.
I had some work done on my car recently.
I must preface this anecdote with the following disclaimer: The car shop is designed and staffed to be as modern and efficient as possible. A free standing customer service person in the middle of the floor. Computer stations and phones within arm's reach.
As I walked up to the service counter, the customer service person who was on the phone AND typing, looks up to me and only manages an eyebrow acklowledgment that I exist. He could not find my order, my keys, he could not give me a total, he had the person on the phone on hold... after he "helped me" I sat down to wait some more, amazed to hear him treat every coustomer that way.
Within 30 minutes there were 6 of us, all waiting for him to finish one task.
The other day I told my online-anxiety coworker that I was geting "off line" to write. He was shocked. What if I missed an email? What if someone wanted to get a hold of me?!
It can wait or they can call me or if it is REALLY urgent, they can dial 911. But in reality the work is always there. being focused at one task makes me more efficient. It makes my work better.
I completely agree with the scripture that says that there is a time for everything under the heaven. Everything has a time and requires time. Pretending that I can do everything all at once, means I will only become reactionary to what is urgent and not focused on what is impotant.
I also believe that this extends to our personal relationships. Sometimes I find myself mutitasking my kids. Talking to them about the show we just saw but trying to make a point about something that they did, while worrying about something in their future while trying to teach them a lesson. This does not work very well. I have to remind myself to just be with them and deal with issues as they come up.
Yes, a lot of multitasking comes naturally. Life gives us enough to juggle. It comes with enough interruptions in the day, for us to make a work-life philosophy out of it.
P.S: Funny things that have happened to me as I "multi-task": I tried for about 3 minutes to get into the wrong car this has happened a few times. Walked out of an elevator and into a wedding reception. Scared a family to death by trying to force myself into their hotel room. Gone to the wrong airport. Gotten on the wrong plane. Got a ticket, which started by calling a coworker to tell them I was running a few minutes late, while I was driving, I ended up an hour late and $800 poorer. I saw my supervisor in the pajama top while she inadventantly pushed the camera link on a conference call with 30 other people, becuase she was making coffee at the same time. I have had people walk into me at the airport, pretty much every week, not bump into, but like walk into like a ghost does when possesing someone. I've seen countless men walk into the women's bathroom accidentally, I have seen women do this too. I have heard a former client loose a $350 million dollar contract over an international bidding call in which someone on the team forgot to mute their phone while they went to the bathroom. I have dropped my phone in the shower as I take a conference call, while I showered. Landed, gotten immediatrly on the phone, then check into the hotel, still no the phone, unpack while on the phone and working on my computer...only to wake up the next day get ready, get to my car and have NO idea in what city or state I am in, this happens about once a month.
