Multi-Labor

Happy Labor Day!

At this traditional transition point of the end of summer and the start of fall's more serious pursuits, I thought it was a good time to revisit a theme that plays out in countless offices and households everywhere -- the myth of multitasking.

Academic research deconstructing the multitasking myth continues to multiple. The latest was published about a week ago by Stanford University. Researchers Eyal Ophis, Clifford Nass and Anthony Wagner focused on three major assumptions about "successful" multitaskers in this electronic hyper-information consumption era:

1) They manage to pay attention simultaneously to multiple stimuli.

2) They can shuttle from task to task more quickly than other people.

3) They can control their memories better so that they can resume a task from right where they left off.

But in a series of tests which compared those who regularly do a lot of media multitasking with those who don't, the multitaskers were:

1) More distractable

2) Less able to sort through stimuli

3) Less able to stay on task

The Stanford website has a great summary of the study, which can be found here.

Tell the truth: is multitasking making you are productive as you think?