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Multitasking


Definition, Explanation

The term multitasking, in business, refers to doing several things at the same time, respectively using several media simultaneously, e.g. checking emails while participating in a meeting. The term multitasking originates from informatics, referring to a computer’s ability of running several tasks in parallel, or quasi-parallel creating the illusion of simultaneousness.

As for the human, however, scientific surveys have shown that he is not quite capable of doing several things at once. The conscious mind can only deal with one thing at a time, or put differently, attention is not simply dividable. The flood of input that the brain gets is cut down in dramatic reduction: from one billion of bits per second entering the sensory organs, just about 100 bits are filtered out and used in higher cognitive functions. To become multitasking-capable, a human has to switch permanently and for short time-intervals between several activities and stimuli. Thereby, the probability of errors increases, and eventually multitask- and multi-object-working costs more time than does doing things successively because of repetitive starting-out-anew on a task. The more occupying a task is, the more requires it one’s undivided attention.

That is the reason why it makes no sense to care for several projects at a time. The getting-into-it-again takes several hours a day. Permanent changing between tasks is estimated to effect a 25 per cent increase of working time.

There seem to be people though, that are more suited to switch between tasks than others. Slightly chaotic persons who are flexible, mostly, deal better with that than people who work more structured and persistently.

Trying to work multitasking results in stress and malaise in the short run, and in the long run in attentional deficits and potentially in failure of one’s short-term memory.

Tips, Checklist

  • Avoid doing several things at a time. Rather, work on tasks and procedures one after the other in a planned order
  • Schedule breaks in your daily routine. A well-tried method is to have short breaks every hour. They can be used for getting a cup of coffee, taking out the trash, using the bathroom, or just for taking a deep breath and a stretch
  • Prioritize and separate the important from the unimportant. This includes defining your goals
  • Schedule your fixed times to deal with the things are otherwise typically interrupt you, like emails, telephone calls
  • Focus on one task that you keep working on disciplined until you have taken it to a pre-defined goal state
  • Train simple tasks to the degree that you have them down cold, you can do them unconsciously. Then you will be able to do other tasks at the same time. That is why one can talk while jogging. When the joggers are going to cross a dangerous road, though, the talk will pause, since otherwise the brain would be over-challenged
  • Disable the inbox-alert sound of your email, redirect the telephone to the answering machine, shut the door, in order not to be interrupted
  • Your workload pressure will not be averted by your trying to do several things at once; it will rather increase the pressure since you make more errors and it costs you time to correct them. Force yourself to do the tasks each one after another
  • Avoid being distracted and train your focusing ability and the ability to remain un-influenced by disturbances
  • Train your memory
  • Regularly read higher-level texts, play chess, or play an instrument. Also computer games help developing multi-tasking ability

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Last update: 03/16/2012
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