It seems there’s not a single job description that doesn’t include a reference to “multitasking” anymore. I don’t know why I find this so irritating, but it might be because humans can’t actually multitask very well. The term applies best to computers that are capable of doing two computational tasks simultaneously, which requires two processors. Humans don’t work like that.

Why Multitasking Gives Me A Headache

It turns out that it’s possible to appear to do two things at once when the things are different, like walking while talking on a cellphone. It’s harder to keep up appearances, however, when the tasks are similar. For example, try talking on the phone while writing an e-mail and you’ll get the idea pretty quickly. That’s because these processes require similar parts of your brain which leads to interference between the tasks.

What you end up doing is switching between talking and writing as quickly as possible. With training you can get better at this, but you’ll never be as good at either task as you would be if you were doing the task without the switching. Scientists attribute this in part to something called context switching, which basically means that you’ve gotta store information about the first task before switching to the second. When you’re ready to switch back to the first, you need to store the second task and re-load the first one. Sounds like a massive headache to me. Even when the tasks are very different, like talking on the phone and driving, performance decreases in both, which is more like a head injury than a headache.

Something Better

If you’re willing to accept that multitasking leads to lower efficiency and quality please help spread the word that multitasking is something that computers do, not humans. Please please please don’t use this in a job descroption. And, if you’re looking for a way to be more productive, point your employer/employee to recent studies that show that screen-size is directly related to productivity when using computers. There was a great article about this in the NY TImes Magazine here.  There have also been many studies: here’s an American Psychological Association study summary, and info on the University of Utah is discussed in this Wall Street Journal article:

Researchers at the University of Utah tested how quickly people performed tasks like editing a document and copying numbers between spreadsheets while using different computer configurations: one with an 18-inch monitor, one with a 24-inch monitor and with two 20-inch monitors. Their finding: People using the 24-inch screen completed the tasks 52% faster than people who used the 18-inch monitor; people who used the two 20-inch monitors were 44% faster than those with the 18-inch ones. There is an upper limit, however: Productivity dropped off again when people used a 26-inch screen. (The order of the tasks and the order of computer configurations were assigned randomly.)

One of the things that I’ve personally noticed is that having more screen space means you can see more of your open tasks/windows. This in turn allows you to organize your tasks more efficiently on your desktop, and prevents you from forgetting about them. Though I don’t currently have a huge screen, I find that Spaces and Exposé on the Mac OS simulate the big screen experience on a laptop by allowing you to quickly switch between multiple desktops (though don’t switch too much or interference will drag down productivity).

A final Word

Still think you’re a multitasker? Try keeping up with Thea Alba aka “the woman with ten brains”. She was a performer in the 1920’s who could write multiple different words at the same time. She may have been really good at context switching, though she compared what she was doing to what musicians do. In other words, she combined all the tasks into one choreographed effort. She trained a long time to do this with pre-selected words. Go ahead try it, I dare you.