The tantalizing
promise of
convenience and
productivity...
Multitasking:
Multiple tasks that share a
common processing resource
genM:
The Multitasking Generation
some definitions
Blue
Green
Red
• Cognitive limitation
•
The Stroop effect: The brain is not
capable of doing two things at once
•
Exception is rote physical activity
• The irony of it all
•
Multitasking adds about 50% to the
time required to complete tasks
•
The higher the frequency of task
switching the more we slow down
the tantalizing promise
• Workers are interrupted, on
average, every 10.5 minutes
• On average, it takes 23 minutes
to return to task
• 2.1 hours per day is lost to
interruptions
• Est. loss of $588 Billion /year
• 45% of US workers believe they
are over stretched
Activity vs Productivity
• Monochrons vs Polychrons
• Both personality types
described a multitasker as:
Impatient
Distracted
Disruptive
• No statistical significance for
any positive attributes
perceptions of the multitasker
• Multitasking makes us
neurologically stressed
• 75% of firms report looking for
candidates that are
“multitaskers”
• The young multitask as matter of
lifestyle
• Technology has been deployed
that ensures multitasking
reality
• 150 times per day!
(checking our phone)
• 1 minute, 15 seconds
(on task before interrupted)
• 50% more!
(errors)
• 10 point reduction
(our IQ)
(same as missing a night of sleep, or smoking pot)
updates
• The effects of multitasking is
contagious!
our environment is polluted by
multitasking
• Multitasking also affects your
metacognition!
it affects our ability to evaluate our
own performance
updates
• Multitasking is wasteful
• People don’t like you when you
multitask
• It will make you sick!
• You are contagious!
so what should we do?
Become better at it!
in conclusion
Why is other peoples
multitasking disruptive
and wasteful,
but yours is not?
about you
If you can get better at
multitasking,
how do you improve?
about you
Calculate the cost of
multitasking (CoM),
(a) for you!
(b) for your team!
2.1 hours is about 26% of an 8 hour day
(a) .26 * your fully burdened cost = CoM
(b) .26 * you teams fully burdened cost = OCoM
about your organization
How do you reduce your
and your teams CoM by
15% or more?
Be Specific!
Estimate impact!
about your organization
• Information and tasks must be
hyper relevant
• Information must “find” the
relevant receiver
• Tasks must be connected
directly to the goals
• Actions must be prioritized and
free from ambiguity
relevancy
• Design for rapid re-engagement
• Deploy technology that has
ability to determine the users
circumstances
• Create space, both mental and
physical, for people to think
• Transform work environments
so that information becomes
knowledge and even wisdom
context
Consider how you can
impact your life and
your organization by
becoming multitasking
aware!
Your task is not to
foresee the future,
but to enable it.
Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Thank you!
Truls K. Henriksen
312.953.0102
truls@henriksengroup.net