I multi-task with the best of you, but sometimes I wonder if my multi-tasking is less efficient than I’d like to think. In fact, I often wonder if by spinning in the information age, responding to emails, blogs, IMs, cell calls, text messages, and the old phone, I am slipping in my ability to concentrate on one thing, to have sustained, fruitful reflection on important issues and topics like my marriage, spiritual life, parenting, etc.
In a 2006 article entitled, “The Multitasking Generation” Time magazine outlined some of the dangers of multi-tasking. What do you think? Do you struggle? What are your solutions? Here are a few observations/reflections from the article:
Drawbacks to Multitasking
- Its Just Inefficient: “When people try to perform two or more related tasks either at the same time or alternating rapidly between them, errors go way up, and it takes far longer—often double the time or more—to get the jobs done than if the were done sequentially.” – David E. Meyer, Dir of the Brain, Cognition and Action Lab at Univ of Michigan.
- Loss of Sustained Logic: Full length books infrequently assigned at Duke University. Students write internally coherent paragraphs but don’t sustain arguments or sustained line of thinking well
- Community Decay: Disruption of family and community life. With all the media distractions, family dinners seem to be virtually gone from the fabric of American life.