Comments on: Why Multitasking is a Waste of Time

By: lww

lww — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:17:47 +0000

Spoken by someone who has no stress at all at work. I can compile a program, work a spreadsheet, answer a phone call and print that report for the boss who is standing at my desk at the same time. If I did them one at a time I’d be fired for loafing.

By: jack son

jack son — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:58:15 +0000

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:46:03 +0000

Don’t multitask. Do one thing at a time, enjoy the task, celebrate the completion of the task and move on to the next task. This ensures accuracy and quality. You will be a happier and healthier person for it.

Ron
http://www.YourWritingDept.com

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:52:19 +0000

It has been my experience that men are not good at multi-tasking. Women seem to be more capable at it. So it comes as no big surprise that the author of an article about multi-tasking being a waste of time is a male.

By: GGGGG

GGGGG — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:18:01 +0000

no one definitely can run away from multitasking, the world we live in is multitasked already, and thinking pattern is multitasked, cos you got so many things jostling for your time, be it a now, a sec, min, hour, day or centuries later, even with switching there is a relative level of multitasking cos you definitely can’t switch to something that isn’t already pending your memory for attention

we sometimes do it well, sometimes not too well, guess the result tells us how far we have come with either the switching or the multitasking which ever way you all put it

ciao

By: Rohbanian

Rohbanian — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:18:46 +0000

Thank you.
It was my problem. Getting project from multi websites and working as a freelancer for many sources !
Thanks again

گروه هنر و برنامه نويسي مهرگان – طراحي وب سايت

By: optifocus

optifocus — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:11:25 +0000

hey.. i think multitasking is good at a times and bad sometimes. because with multitasking one cant concentrate on one work. like if you are working on a pc than sometimes it is fine. otherwise when you studying for exam and at the same time u cant watch tv or listen music. so according to me multitasking is good sometimes and also bad. Regards, Optifocus Optician IT Solutions

By: JV

JV — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:27:02 +0000

On a PC it’s easy to do, download a file, while writing a document.
Install a program while answering email.
…

Multitasking is being pushed on us by multitask OSs

By: KiwiJohn

KiwiJohn — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:59:39 +0000

I can multitask. Just now I was concurrently (1) sitting in my chair, (2) drinking coffee, (3) reading an article on Sitepoint. Then I switched to writing a response, so I had to put my coffee cup down.

The difference between multitasking and switching has already been pointed out, but I’ll reiterate: Multitasking is doing multiple things concurrently, whereas switching is changing between a group of tasks frequently and doing a little of each at a time.

Examples:
Multitasking: drinking coffee and reading an article
Switching: drinking coffee and reading an article out loud

The ability (and effectiveness) of multitasking really depends on the tasks you are performing and how skilled you are at them. For example, most drivers approaching an intersection will apply the brakes, switch on the turn indicator, change gears, check traffic and plot their route through the intersection all at the same time and do it so naturally that they don’t even think about the fact that they just performed five actions concurrently (multitasking), whereas a coder focused on a difficult algorithm may not even hear their wife call them for dinner.

However, I believe Toby is really talking about switching. Again, the ability and effectiveness of switching is determined by the tasks and your ability to perform them. The most effective use of switching is when you do a second thing while waiting for a first thing to complete. By reducing the amount of time you spend doing nothing, you become more efficient. However, switching from something you are busy at in order to get busy at something else is inefficient. Unless the thing switched to has a higher priority than the first, in which case it should obviously be completed before returning to the first task.

Effective switching example: Having multiple chats open and replying to one while waiting for a reply from another.

Ineffective switching example: Having multiple emails open and writing a sentence at a time on each.

By: omnicity

omnicity — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:34:17 +0000

As with so many things, the truth lies in the degree to which you multi-task – if you swap tasks every minute or so, then you won’t get much done, but for most people, if you stick strictly to one task at a time, then occasionally that task will block, and you will be left twiddling your thumbs while you wait for what ever it is to complete.
For me, the best thing is to have a good variety of tasks in your queue, so that you can fit an entire task into whatever window opens, before moving back. Equally, try to keep them at different stages, so that if one particular process cannot complete just now (this will vary greatly between different jobs) then another process won’t block in the same place.