A few weeks ago, my college inquiry class was assigned a article titled, "The Myth of Multitasking", and it really struck a chord with me. The article is a questain and answer session with the author of a book named Dave Crenshaw. In a nutshell, it says that what we thought was efficient, are actually making our productivity decrease. He further explains that when you are going from one task to another, you are not spending the complete time and attention to each task that is needed for a completed, fully immersified, end result. He also dabbles into the idea of techonology playing a part in ineffictient multitasking, a topic that has been in the hot seat for several years now, and also a topic that I have touched upon in previous postings.
At the very end of the article, Dave gives his tips for making better use of time and to diminish the poison that is multitasking.
"Take control over technology—Your cell phone ringer (even on vibrate) doesn't need to be on all the time. You can turn off email notification on your computer as well. Become master over the nagging beeps and buzzes by creating some silence.
Schedule what you can schedule—Set regular times in the day and week to check your voicemail and email. Let others know that you will be using that schedule so they know when to expect a reply.
Focus on the person—When you switchtask when dealing with a computer, you simply lose efficiency. But if you switchtask on a human being, you additionally damage a relationship. Be present, listen carefully, and make sure everything has been taken care of before moving on."
From this article, I have conjured up several "Inquiry Questions"..
--Do you, personally, feel that multasking improves efficiency, or decreases it?
--How does the topic of multitasking relate to college students, posive or negatively?
--Do you have any experiences were multi-tasking worked well for you?
or the opposite?
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