from Jan Schwartz

Before I got on a conference call this morning I was deep into working on a webinar. The call, as usual, started with some chatting as we were waiting for everyone to join. I decided to keep working on the Keynote (PowerPoint to you non-Mac users) until we REALLY got started. So of course the Keynote was up on my screen, as were about 5 other documents and websites, along with Skype.

This is called multitasking by the masses. I’m either the only person among the masses who can’t multitask or those who say they multitask are blowing smoke.  I’m not saying you CAN’T do more than one thing at a time, I’m saying I don’t know how people can do more than one thing WELL at a time.

I missed when the real meeting started to take place, but it was somewhere between the iStock photo website and my script when I heard my name. “I guess Jan must have lost the call.” Whoops! I quickly saved what I was doing and minimized all my screens. Then I said, “Hey, I’m back, sorry about that!”

How many times has this happened to you? I learned some time ago that I couldn’t do more than one thing well at a time, especially on the computer. This morning was unusual for me–I generally do put aside what I am doing so I can pay attention to what is happening on the conference call. I read Brain Rules by John Medina and that is what made me give up even trying to multitask. I will say that before I read this book, I thought that I should be learning to multitask, because everyone was doing it. I’ve since changed my mind, at least about doing multiple tasks that require attention. I can still walk, talk and chew gum all at the same time.

Here is what Medina says,

To put it bluntly, research shows that we can’t multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously.

He then goes on to give some examples of what the research shows.  I’ll leave it to you to read the book.

My own example: I can’t tell you how many times I missed a turn because I was talking to someone while driving–even the person sitting next to me.  Both tasks required paying attention.

Medina is not saying we can’t walk, talk and chew gum at the same time, but that we can’t pay attention to multiple cognitive tasks at the same time and do any one of them justice.

So what do you think people mean when they say they multitask and how do you think it affects how we learn, online and otherwise?

Photo credits: Flickr, CarbonNYC and Flickr, Mike Licht