Dave Ferguson tackles multitasking…”there’s a big difference between doing several things and getting several things done.” It’s like strategy and implementation – doing things rights and doing the right things. Now if I could just figure out the right things to do…
Can you really choose not to multitask at work? Dave breaks down a process from the book Brain Rules. (JC)
Dave’s Whiteboard | Dave Ferguson | 10 September 2008
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Janet, thanks for the mention. I see that my focus on writing the post didn’t initially include giving it a title.
I think you can choose not to multitask, or at least to better manage both your interruptions and your own tendencies — the workplace equivalents of a “near occasion of sin.”
Michele Martin talked about this recently when she asked, “How do you manage your online time?”
To extend the sin analogy, no single thing here is a mortal sin — but there is a cumulative effect. Nothing wrong with checking email, scanning feeds, taking phone calls as they come in; not even anything wrong with leaving all your messages in the in basket, or not reviewing priorities, or not blocking out time at the start or end of the day to reflect in writing on what you’ve done or what you want to do.
When I worked on high-pressure projects in a cubicle, someone gave me a couple yards of yellow tape — POLICE LINE / DO NOT CROSS. It began as a joke, but I taped some of it to the back of my “guest chair.” And when I needed to concentrate, I’d stick the chair in the cubicle doorway.
(I also refused to cooperate with prairie-dogging, but then I’m something of a crank that way.)
Dave:
Glad Janet picked up your post. I’ve added Brain Rules to my book wish list. I’m currently passionate about issues revolving around productivity, multitasking, the effects on our brain, etc. Good post.
OMG Dave – I also had police tape and a no prairie-dogging thing going on when trying to crank out a huge project. That’s a challenge of working at home. No one at my house thinks I’m working…and the yellow tape, well it would end up blocking entry to some fort the kids built. And the only prairie dogging activities I do now are via Skype. Too bad you can’t just change your presence status in a cube farm. “Not available” “offline”…
thanks for your comment.
Richard:
I enjoyed Brain Rules quite a bit (as you can tell, since I wrote a post about each rule). It’s a very conversational level, meaning that he doesn’t get too deep in the scientific details. While some of his suggestions / wishes seem a bit impractical, overall it’s worthwhile. And I’m a fan of quick, cogent summaries, so the rules themselves, as capsules of larger concepts, are great.
I’m sorry that his blog so far hasn’t turned out to be very blog-like. I’m thinking “book blog” is now a required piece of marketing impedimenta, much like the notions cranked up by a wedding planner.
A related book with deeper trips into neuroscience and neurobiology is Daniel Levitin’s This is Your Brain on Music, the kind you look forward to re-reading.
Janet:
My secret is that my boss gave me the police tape. She got it from her husband, who at the time worked for the D.C. police department’s homicide squad. That’s serious tape.
sheeit…that is serious. I think I got mine from a trainers catalog…no wonder it wasn’t effective ; )