Peter Bergman wrote an HBR blog post last week How (any Why) to Stop Multitasking. Bergman tried to stop multitasking for a week as an experiment. His post lists six benefits from his experiment including this observation:
I lost all patience for things I felt were not a good use of my time.
Multitasking can mask the pain of doing something that doesn’t need to be done.
Thanks to Neal Richter for pointing out this article.
Update: See this post on the study that Bergman quotes on how multitasking lowers your IQ more than smoking marijuana does. The study made a big splash even though it had a ridiculous design.
There’s also this article ‘The Guardian’ website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/22/multitaking-unitasking-aj-jacobs
>I lost all patience for things I felt were not a good use of my time.
Yep, the one time multitasking seems sensible to me is when I’m at meetings and in classes. If I’m not doing something else (like crocheting or doodling), I’ll bite my nails. I wonder if there’s a better way to conduct meetings…
I read something once that said driving should be the only thing you’re doing when you do it. No music or conversation. That wouldn’t work for me. I would get sleepy much faster.
Some things that are boring you still have to do, though. You know, like call the carpet cleaner and make an appointment for them to clean the carpets. Do the dishes. Listen to voice mail and decide who to call back and who to ignore (everyone who wants to sell me stuff). Sort the mail.
I do those things two at a time.