
The High Price of Multitasking - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/opinion/multitasking-brain.html
======
tonystubblebine
A simple change I'd like to see in tech culture is to change how we refer to
the notifications feature. We should call them interruptions instead.

Do I want my meeting interrupted if my spouse calls with an emergency?
Absolutely.

Do I want that meeting interrupted to find out I've been given a $10 Lyft
credit? Absolutely not.

That Lyft credit, thank you, can be delivered to the proper home for
notifications: my email.

~~~
hinkley
I started wondering a year or so ago if there's enough metadata available in
my dev tools to determine if I am actively engaged in debugging or if I'm just
decompressing (aka 'fucking around' according to some) on Hacker News.

If I can get that information reliably enough, I could use Automator on OS X
to enable Do Not Disturb until a couple minutes after I task switch to
anything else that's not focus-based.

~~~
chrislh
At work, we've been pushing everyone to use an app called clockwise. Basically
it integrates with your calendar, moves meetings around (with your approval)
to maximize focus time (2+ hour blocks of work).

It also allows you to set up "Do not disturb" on slack during your focus and
meeting time. It's awesome.

(BTW, no personal association with the company, just a happy user).

[https://www.getclockwise.com/](https://www.getclockwise.com/)

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cosmodisk
Multitasking doesn't exist, it's just jumping from one task to another. I run
operations/tech side of things at the company I work for. Over the last month,
there were a lot things going on,which just ended up being priority on top of
priority(and they were not made up 'important' things). At some point I looked
at my inbox and I had 500 unread emails with no light at the end of the
tunnel,because in the morning I have to take this 45 min call with some
moaning customer,who wants to speak to the manager, shortly after I have to
deal with some compliance bs,while in the afternoon I somehow need to push
some code changes to production.So not much time left to read emails.So one
day,I just marked them all to 'read' and moved to archived.The inbox was
empty. What happened? Nothing. Just a hard reset on my inbox.So now I'm less
behind on some stuff and the rest can go to hell,or send me an email again.

~~~
onemoresoop
Multitasking is what prevents us from working on a problem uninterrupted. If
you are not allowed to concentrate on a problem because another task has
higher priority you are doing multitasking. You said it yourself, multitasking
is jumping from one task to another, and I may add the word unfinished before
task.

~~~
ogn3rd
wouldn't it be easier to describe multi-tasking as context switching?

~~~
bpyne
What we call multitasking is usually task switching, according to an article I
read after a similar discussion on HN. The dividing line has something to do
with only one task at a time being able to use an area of the brain. As long
as one of the tasks doesn't use that area, you can multitask. Otherwise, you
can physically only task switch.

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NetBeck
Earl Miller has researched multitasking from a neuroscientist's
perspective.[1] The concept of "switch cost" is interesting:

"We are only good at doing one thing at a time. But we are switching back and
forth. It takes time for our brain to change from one task to another.

Switch cost is when it takes your brain a short while … to realign for a new
task. Your brain has to backtrack and figure out where it was in the first
place."[2]

[1]
[https://ekmillerlab.mit.edu/tag/multitasking/](https://ekmillerlab.mit.edu/tag/multitasking/)

[2] [https://www.today.com/health/multitasking-doesn-t-work-
why-f...](https://www.today.com/health/multitasking-doesn-t-work-why-focus-
isn-t-just-hocus-t69276)

------
jes
A problem with multitasking is that people may choose to work on a project
that is not the most important project for the company to complete.

Assume a company that has six projects, started but not finished, in its
portfolio.

The value of those projects, when delivered, will not be equal. Some will
likely be 10x or 20x the revenue of others in the portfolio.

If people are multitasking, they are jumping around from project to project.
The most important project to complete (A, let's say) is standing still while
people work on the other projects. Every so often, A gets some attention and
so it makes some progress towards completion. But before too it has to wait
again when less important projects are worked.

The company suffers because valuable projects take longer than they should to
complete and begin earning money for the company. Sales that are not made
because the product is not available for sale are never recovered. Developers
are deprived of the satisfaction of completing projects frequently because
projects always seem to take too long to finish.

Bottom line, cutting your work in process often brings dramatic improvements.

Thoughts?

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Brajeshwar
Long back around 2014, I started with No-Notification by Default[1] on my
phone and my digital life. It was a really good start, and today I don't get
notified of anything except very critical things that I selectively choose to
keep them on.

About a year back, I experimented with a default Silent and Default DND[2] on
my phone. No call goes through except the ones in my favorites (less than 10).
I'm loving it.

1\. [https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-
activi...](https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activities-
stop-notifications/)

2\. [https://no.phone.wtf/](https://no.phone.wtf/)

------
criddell
Multitasking doesn't exist but distractions certainly do. This is one of the
reasons I've stopped using multi-monitor setups.

My preferred set up is a large 4k monitor. If I can work with one application
set to full screen, I'm happy. Normally though I end up with my editor taking
up the left half to two thirds of the screen and the right section contains a
browser or terminal.

I use virtual desktops and on my second screen I have my music player and all
the messaging apps and email that I need. I flip to that desktop probably
three times a day.

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dguo
In college, one of my computer science professors was giving a lecture in
which he explained all the low level things (like setting up the stack) that
go into calling a function. Then he compared it to the context switches that
occur during multitasking. That comparison has stuck with me ever since. It
made me very aware that there's a cost to switching tasks each time you do it.

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x43b
I love gadgets and sensors, I've looked for a reason to get a smart watch. I
have avoided it because once I eliminate interruptions/multitasking, I can't
see a good use case for me. I check email/messages too often, I can't imagine
a buzz/chime/flash on my wrist helping.

~~~
mikestew
You might be right. Let me submit that a smartwatch allows you to glance, deal
with it or not, go on about your day. In contrast to the phone, where once I
unlock it, it has a higher tendency to drag me in. IOW, the watch is my first
line of defense to minimize me getting my phone out of the bag.

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jjtheblunt
Are piano players, keeping a distinct lower-register tune in their left hand
WHILE their right hand plays a distinct tune, truly multitasking ?

~~~
ikeyany
I would say no—rather, their hands are executing two parts of the same task:
playing piano.

That's like saying a wind player is multitasking when they blow air while
simultaneously moving their fingers.

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PaulHoule
When will the first manager manage accordingly? When do we see a job listing
that says they want somebody who doesn't multitask?

~~~
tonystubblebine
It has to start at the very top. Managers get bullied into creating multi-
tasking cultures because they aren't allowed to staff projects sequentially.
Every stake holder cares that their project is started, at the expense of when
all projects will finish.

Early Paypal had singular focus, although I've only heard the stories told
through the mythologizing of the founders: [http://blog.idonethis.com/manager-
focus-peter-thiel-paypal/](http://blog.idonethis.com/manager-focus-peter-
thiel-paypal/)

I think there's a way to manage remote teams that promotes single tasking.
Because communication is harder with remote teams you have to make a choice:
have more of it or have less of it. I always choose to have less communication
by trying to simplify work, eliminate coordination (especially parallel
projects), actually push decision making out to the edges. I don't know
exactly how well the people who work with me enjoy it, but I know I only have
one meeting on my calendar this week, and so I'm pretty free to single task at
least.

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mnemnc
While I totally agree on the dangers of multitasking, I found a certain genre
of music to help me to get into a flow state while programming and thus
massively boosting my productivity.

~~~
jolmg
What genre is that? I tend to listen to different ones, but no _one_ genre
manages to get me into the flow every time.

~~~
mnemnc
Progressive psytrance. What's interesting is that a lot of other genres of
electronic music (which have similar characteristics) don't have the same
effect on my productivity and ability to concentrate.

~~~
jodrellblank
I'm not too surprised; I find a YouTube mix of an hour or two Psy Trance or
Psy Breaks to pass incredibly quickly. Classic trance gets a bit dull, EDM is
too engaging.

It's even more effective than thunderstorm or "train in the rain" soundscapes,
just as long as it doesn't have much in the way of lyrics.

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jingw222
Multitasking is analogue to multithreading with GIL. As long as the tasks are
computing/analytics intensive, you're better off dealing with them
sequentially one at a time.

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georgewsinger
I can think of few things more thoroughly chanted by the mainstream than
"multitasking bad!". Yet it seems that the most prolific outliers do quite a
bit of multitasking (for some notion of multitasking). In startups Steve Jobs
and Elon Musk come to mind.

Is anyone aware of any evidence (or even more anecdotes) of "multitasking
good"?

~~~
tonystubblebine
Do (did) they? With Musk, working at two companies isn't the same as multi-
tasking. He could show up to one in the morning and then the other in the
afternoon and people would generally consider that to still be single tasking.

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british_india
Multitasking is harmful for left-brain dominant persons, because the left
brain processes information in a linear-sequential manner. This does not
permit the resumption of interrupted tasks.

Multitasking is not as harmful for right-brain dominant persons, because the
right brain processes information in a visual-simultaneous manner. This ALLOWS
the resumption of interrupted tasks.

