I find your scientific proof, impecable. Excelent work!

I buy it. I can hardly monotask, let alone multi…

[…] via: 43folders.com […]

[…] So many women proclaim that they can multi-task successfully. This statement of feminine oneupmanship has somehow been used to beat simplistic men around the ears for years now. Logically it isn’t possible to multi-task, but I will not go down that road now. Then I came across this post on Merlin Mann’s wonderful blog, 43 Folders that showed this by Tim Morgan. […]

I have to disagree. Everyone I know on the Internet uses at least 5% of their brain power thinking about coffee.

[…] Found courtesy of 43 Folders […]

QUICK! Without checking, tell me is the orginal author male or female? Yet, more proof of what the female of the species have always know, men have yet to evolve to a point where they can multitask!

emily,

The humor of your quip asside, I’ve known women who think that they can multitask well, and indeed can better than any guy I’ve known. It comes with a dear cost. Care and stress. As stress mounts, you lose the ability to do things with care. It bites you in the end. Inevitably.

The traditional lifestyle of most women, housekeeping, does train them better for multitasking. But the relentlessness of it doesn’t train them how to relax. And that’s what men can do, with aplomb!

We should train each other as much as possible and find the middle ground, no?

Your first assignment is to go lie on the couch for an hour and a half!

As a male who thought until recently that he could multitask, and has watched women who thought they could multitask, I have to say that it’s a myth. As Jonathan says, you lose all ability to do things with care, you are at the mercy of stress, and as stress takes over, you lose the ability to focus. Sure, you think you can focus, but what you’ve really done is bit off the heads of all the “fools” who “can’t multitask” and have rammed your own idea down the pike by force of grating personality alone.

Also, Emily, your second assignment is to learn how to punctuate. ;-)

[…] I realized that my ability to multi-task has diminished quite alot. It seems I end up wasting more time getting things done then if I firmly see each one through with 100% of my concentration. Maybe the myth of multi-tasking is true after all. […]

Jonathan hit the nail on the head. As a working mom (read: female who thought she could multitask), I have to tell you that this middel ground of which Jonathan waxes poetic is attainable! Yes, women can learn to relax, although it takes some time. Men can learn to be speedily effective, too. Don’t put yourselves to shame so quickly, men!

I have found in my humble experience that focusing on one task, the “most important task at any given moment,” and focusing on completion with care has lead me to that middle ground. Because, after all, if the baby is crying for a bottle, all it does is prolong the crying if you’re trying to shove one more dish in the dishwasher before running back upstairs with the bottle. Just feed the baby, and the dishes will get done, too. Or, in terms men can understand more readily, finish the spec doc, then return all those pesky emails at once. And you have something accomplished.

Oh, and just pour another cup of coffee so you’re not wasting that brainpower thinking about it.

In other words, Nike had the solution: “Just do it.” Then, it’ll be over, and no more need to multitask!

Or the non commercial version: “Do it and it will be done.”

I have spent too much time sending follow-up mails correcting errors in the previous mail, which I had written in “multitasking-mode”.

Good pic, I think that about sums it up. ;-)

I definitely am more productive when focused on one task.

Slightly OT: Anyone else feel like they’re total spazzes when you use that interstitial time to get small tasks done? In other words, has it destroyed your ability to focus?

Today’s miscellany

And thus Apple’s plans at world domination were dashed. … Regarding HTML in e-mail: what Tom said. I’m not even an admin like Tom that has to deal with this crap on a day to day basis. E-mail is for text. The Web is for graphics. No c…

Oooh… the interstitial time… that’s a killer for those of us who are just too hyper to sit still and focus. I find I always have a chat window open to kill those interstitial waits, and it helps somewhat maintain focus.

Back in the day I was a receptionist. They had formal training for such jobs, back in the 80’s. Someone did a study and found that if receptionist do other tasks, like word processing, answering the phone disrupted the other task to the point that it took an average of six minutes to return to the level of focus before the phone call.

And, yet, 20 years later, receptionists are still asked to do such things as filing and word processing. And someone still gets mad when they find mistakes.