Multitaskers are taken to task
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post
Raise your hand if you have a lot to do. (That is, if you have a free hand from the simultaneous typing, reading and talking on the cell phone.)
Whether you thrive on it or detest it, face it: We are a world of multitaskers.
Marc Cappelletti never really did just one thing when he was a cruise director. He lasted 11 months before deciding he missed his family, wouldn't mind dressing out of a closet rather than a suitcase, and sure would like to ease up on his crazy workload.
He says he never did fewer than three things at a time. Lunch? Sure, if he brought information with him and sat answering passengers' questions. Sleep? A few hours a night. But that was often interrupted by telephone calls, followed by trying to figure out how to dock as soon as possible to get a sick passenger to shore.
When he sat at the ship's information desk, he answered passengers' queries — often as obscure as "Where is a post office in Belize?" — while making calls for day excursions, organizing music for that night's dinner, and checking in with port agents to let them know when the ship would be docking. All while trying to say hello to passing passengers. By name.
"Since there was a small crew, I literally had to do everything," he said. The George Washington University 2003 graduate recently took another job teaching English as a second language.
The word "multitask" was supposed to refer to computers with more than one window open and running simultaneously. Now it's much more often used to describe what we do. But that doesn't necessarily mean we're getting more done.
According to a survey done for the magazine Scientific American Mind, 90 percent of American adults are multitasking. Yet 57 percent said that despite being busier than ever, they feel like they get less done. (More than 1,000 people were polled.)
Unlike computers, which welcome multiple pieces of information coming in at the same time, our brains don't handle all that simultaneous information too well. "In your brain, it's more like channel surfing. You can focus on one thing at a time," according to Mariette DiChristina, Scientific American Mind's executive editor.
The stress of multitasking can also lead to short-term memory issues that trip up productivity even more.
A recent study by the Families and Work Institute in New York City showed that 54 percent of U.S. workers have felt overwhelmed at some time in the past month by how much work they had to complete.
But some people swear by multitasking.
Lyndsay Barber mostly eats lunch at her desk while reading, typing or doing some other work. When it's time to organize her association's annual convention, she can be found at her desk in Washington writing an article for her industry publication, the phone is cradled on her shoulder as she asks questions about blocks of hotel rooms.
Her mornings go something like this: 7:45 arrival time. Answer e-mails and get phone messages while also reading The Washington Post online. She does Web site maintenance nearly every day while toggling over to another screen to write an article or check e-mail.
But Barber likes what others might see as a nearly impossible juggling routine. "I feel like I do a better job working when I have a lot on my plate," said Barber, who feels she gets more accomplished under pressure. "Even in college, I would take a full class schedule with many activities."
But she admits she often gets sidetracked from that list of things she wants to accomplish during the day.
One worker listed all the duties she takes on during the day, feeling that the only way to get it all done was to struggle with a few things at the same time: toggle between screens, listen to a client on the phone while reading or writing e-mail. She sums it up the way many people would: "Why am I not getting paid FOUR salaries: designer, IT specialist, network admin, custodial staff!"
