Taking Multitasking to Task

When I was adviser to Wayne County High School’s journalism program, I always joked that I was more a ring master for a five-ring circus than teacher. With four publications and one news broadcast always under construction, the yearbook rooms often appeared in total chaos, but l loved every minute of it. I thrived on the confusion and creativity of the students.

At that time, I felt as if I could multitask with the best of them. Therefore, whenever anyone approached me about attending one more time management seminar, I declined. I always said, “I don’t want to manage my time any better. I don’t want to take on one more challenge.”

I long knew that I could multitask because I was a mother. It’s a requirement for that job. It doesn’t matter what we are doing at any given time, the needs of our children must be met first. Interruptions are the name of the game. If we’re cooking, we know to turn off the burner before stopping to clean a child’s skinned knee and to cover it with Band-Aids and kisses.

With retirement, it has taken me a long time to enjoy slowing down, to appreciate completing a single task without interruption, to realize that I no longer have to keep a tight schedule and I can read for long periods of time without feeling guilty about chores stacking up. However, with such luxury also comes nagging thoughts about responsibilities once heeded by habit. Now I must ask myself several times before I’m certain of the answer. Did I turn off the stove? Did I lock the door? Did I...? .

Therefore, I found Joseph T. Hallinan’s article, “Seven Dumb Things We Do” in The Reader’s Digest intriguing, especially the section, “When we multitask, we get stupid.” He writes, “The brain slows down when it has to juggle tasks.” According to Hallinan, studies show that we make mistakes when we try to tackle several tasks at the same time and that we lose valuable time in switching from task to task. In other words, it takes more time to multitask than it does to complete one task, then another, a step by step procedure eliminating mistakes.

What a great theory. However, life itself rarely cooperates with theory. In most instances, we want others to attend to our concerns as soon as possible. If we have to go to the emergency room, we want help immediately, not in due time. We certainly don’t want the President of the United States, nor for that matter anyone in authority, to deal with only one issue at a time. The world could blow up if that were their stance. Such concentrated attention on several issues at one time creates the kind of stress which ages those in power twice as fast as the rest of us.

However, other studies have indicated that being assigned only one task like on an assembly line can lead to other health issues. My one experience with such work was temporary and my specific job involved several steps. But the monotony of repetitive tasks can also take its toll. B-O-R-I-N-G.

Yet another study finds that people who doodle while listening to a recorded message have a 29 percent better recall. Theory explains that we tend to daydream when we are bored. Doodling interrupts the tendency to daydream and focuses the mind on the message at hand.

Regardless of our attitudes about multitasking, it’s here to stay. We cannot cook a simple dinner, even if it is a one-dish meal, without multitasking. Most of us answer a ringing telephone regardless of what else we are doing. Personally, I would try to curtail the fascination of today’s children with texting, watching TV, listening to music and trying to study at the same time. Such overload has to have its limits.

Hallinan also reports on another tech overload. All studies indicate real dangers in the use of any cellular devise while driving. The most recent studies indicate that cellphone use inhibits our abilities as much as alcohol does, making us four times more likely to crash than someone who keeps both hands on the wheel. And the latest survey discovered that people who text while driving are more dangerous than all the drunk drivers and drivers using cell phones combined.

Unfortunately, the hazard in such dual activity doesn’t only hinder the culprit; it also endangers everyone else in the vicinity. Causing an accident because we are trying to multitask cannot not be remedied by a simple mea culpa, “my bad.” It’s not enough. True respect for ourselves begins by respecting the rights of others to expect all of us to take every precaution when operating a motor vehicle, including not drinking and driving nor turning on phones nor texting. Driving an automobile on any road is not a job for a clown or a ring master.

And so, as we relax on this Labor Day, let us reexamine our own rat races. Let us be grateful when we have employment. Let us consider if we really give a full day’s work for a full day’s pay. It’s no time for any of us to slack off. And when we choose to multitask, let us make certain that we fully complete each task set before us and that we avoid all activity but driving when we sit behind the steering wheel and turn the key.

2009