Multi-tasking, as seen by Picasso
We have long instinctively suspected that multi-tasking is a nonsense, and what happens in reality is that a multiplicity of tasks get done less well rather than any real time being saved. Watching people trying to juggle incoming text messages and emails on their phones while attending to what’s going on in a seminar or a meeting is just the most obvious example of the problem.
Now, there’s proof. The word is: turn other devices off and focus on the task at hand. Shut your door, don’t let people interrupt you, and stay off Facebook and Twitter, at least while you are concentrating on something else. (Research does show that access to social networking increases productivity overall in the workplace: it replaces the kind of social interaction that was more common in a less structured group environment and keeps us “grounded”. It provides a useful break. But it is a “BREAK”, people, not a “DURING”.)
So here’s the story. Mandatory reading for anyone who does, er, well, pretty much anything. But I hope you’re not reading it while you’re trying to nut something else out.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/brain–interrupted-173621758.html
Well, This Is What I Think 