# Are You Good At Multitasking?



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Human multitasking, e.g. reading about bigfoots, listening to Xenakis, answering the phone and preparing dinner all at once. How good at multitasking are you?


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

No one is actually good at multitasking. Some people think they are, others know they aren't.

This has been studied. If you're trying to read while watching TV and listening to music, you really aren't fully comprehending all (or any) of the three.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I am a male, so I can't.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I believe I am good at it, but, as GreenMamba stated, it has been studied and found to be inefficient. You think you are accomplishing a lot, but, in actuality, you are really taking longer and doing it more poorly, because your attention is divided.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

I always used to think I was, until I started reading about multitasking and how it's not always very effective. Then I started to play closer attention and realised I was actually not that good after all.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Before retiring, I was constantly multi-tasking. Glad that's all over, and I do my best not to get sucked into it.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I *avoid* multitasking. I much prefer to do my life pure and simple.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I'm hopeless at it but I tend to do it anyway due to ADD tendencies.


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## Guest (Jun 6, 2015)

I'll come back and answer later...I'm doing something else at the moment.


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## Guest (Jun 6, 2015)

I'm [email protected] at uni-tasking.

Why, since it has been shown to be inefficient, do some people like to claim that they are good at multitasking?

In any moment, the mind's attention can only have one focus. Constant switching sounds like a recipe for mistakes.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I may be female, but I'm hopeless at multi-tasking. Partly, I don't believe in it - I believe in giving my efforts my best shot, and I like to savour what I'm doing, and live in the moment.
Actually, a recent study found that multi-tasking just meant that the separate jobs weren't done as well.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

"Good but it depends on what I am multitasking"
-> rather: "Poor, but it very much depends on the motivation and what I am multitasking"


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I would answer the original question, but I've got a million things to do...


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

dogen said:


> I'm [email protected] at uni-tasking.
> 
> Why, since it has been shown to be inefficient, do some people like to claim that they are good at multitasking?


For better or worse, some jobs such as managerial require multi-tasking.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

I'm not only bad at it but if I even attempt it, it throws me into a state of confusion and distress. Any time someone tries interacting with me while I'm on the phone, I become a mumbling jumbling incoherent mess and neither side can decipher a thing from me.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

GreenMamba said:


> No one is actually good at multitasking. Some people think they are, others know they aren't.


Pretty much. I multitask all the time though, my work requires it.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

When you think you are multitasking what you are really doing is task switching. You aren't doing several tasks at the same time, instead you are rapidly switching between the tasks to give the illusion of multitasking. While the brain can perform several tasks simultaneously that is limited to one higher brain function task and all the other things the brain does, like keeping you breathing. As these multiple tasks take place in other parts of the brain than the higher brain function it is closer to multiprocessing, having separate processors, than multitasking.

Forgot what I was doing now.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

dogen said:


> I'm [email protected] at uni-tasking.
> 
> Why, since it has been shown to be inefficient, do some people like to claim that they are good at multitasking?
> 
> In any moment, the mind's attention can only have one focus. Constant switching sounds like a recipe for mistakes.





Bulldog said:


> For better or worse, some jobs such as managerial require multi-tasking.


Also, often we just don't care. Some things don't require deep attention. Others do, but we're willing to sacrifice efficiency.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I put "I avoid multitasking" but that's a partial truth. I multitask housework all the time, I get too bored staying on one item.

For work and other mental activity focusing one one thing is critical for me, I function better thinking through things slowly and deliberately


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Sometimes it is hard to avoid multitasking especially when it comes to the phone and whatever else your were already doing. I have seen on the road some very dangerous situations where drivers are holding the phone talking and driving. That's bad.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

You surprise me - is it legal to drive and use a mobile phone in the US, then?


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

When I played the organ for a living I thought that coordinating the hands and feet was the best example of multi-tasking. I still think it is but if one or more august members of this forum can help me to understand better I would much appreciate it.

Ps: My wife is an excellent multi-tasker around the house...


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I think the point of multitasking is to avoid a disaster, not to give an excellent performance. You manage different things, observe them all and keep them from exploding. Nothing you achieve is very good quality, but it may be passable, and you have avoided a catastrophe. I fancy myself rather good in it - doesn't mean I like it, though.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Ingélou said:


> You surprise me - is it legal to drive and use a mobile phone in the US, then?


Not in New York State , but I can't speak for others. It depends on state laws.

Btw, *holding* the phone and talking isn't the point. Hands-free is just as big a problem. It's mental attentiveness that's the concern.

Talking to friends in the car is less of a problem because (a) you don't have to expend brainpower visualizing them and (b) they give you another set of eyes.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

GreenMamba said:


> Not in New York State , but I can't speak for others. It depends on state laws.
> 
> Btw, *holding* the phone and talking isn't the point. Hands-free is just as big a problem. It's mental attentiveness that's the concern.
> 
> Talking to friends in the car is less of a problem because (a) you don't have to expend brainpower visualizing them and (b) they give you another set of eyes.


I'm not sure I agree. On long drives I tend to daydream but my eyes are still on the road. So what's causing all of the accidents is drivers taking their eyes off the road to operate their hand held devices. I see it almost everyday when these women are rear ending the vehicle in front of them in stop and go rush hour traffic. All those nice Camry's and SUVs smashed up. Keeps the body shops in business.

And BTW, it happens all the time out there in Western NY on route 290. Same thing in Rochester on 390/490.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

The research suggests that it is not an issue of hands, but of minds. Hands-free phones don't help. This summary explicitly discusses the multitasking myth.

http://www.nsc.org/DistractedDrivingDocuments/Cognitive-Distraction-White-Paper.pdf


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't think it's an issue of hands either. It's eyes watching hands instead of the traffic.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

The link points to research showing people on hands free cell phones don't see more than regular cell phone users do (page 9).

The point is that you can be looking at the road, but if your mind is elsewhere, you won't see nearly as much of what's going on. Your field of vision narrows and you do t process everything. Basically, we see with our brains as much as our eyes.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

It's interesting that they haven't outlawed CB radio use for truckers. They seem to be able to talk without crashing.


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## opus55 (Nov 9, 2010)

I ma god at mutlitkaskin


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

A for me i do one thing at a time so i do not have a heart attack or stroke.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> You surprise me - is it legal to drive and use a mobile phone in the US, then?


Some of the 50 states, in the US, I believe it's 14, make it illegal to drive, text and/or use a handheld mobile phone to chat. I find that shockingly neglectful.

All 50 states in the US should ban texting and/or chatting on a handheld mobile phone while driving. No excuse for not doing so.

Time to get these phone-ey drivers off the road.


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