Multitaskers of the world - Be careful!
The New York Times reported on the limits of multitasking recently. In a nutshell, it causes you to make mistakes and hampers your productivity. For example, neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors recommend that you only check your email once an hour and listen to soothing background music while studying or working. Instant messaging, songs with lyrics and television shows all negatively affect productivity. The reason is that we have a core limitation. We can only concentrate on one thing at a time.
The article mentions a recent study about a group of Microsoft workers who took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks like writing reports or computer code after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages. They strayed off to reply to other messages or to browse the web. Has that ever happened to you? Probably. Try to observe your own behaviour patterns in the future.
These are important findings that we must consider as we design and use solutions in the workplace. The news isn’t new, but what’s certain is that we’re not paying attention and its affecting our productivity. Check out this post on technology making us unproductive as well.
