The Myth of Multitasking:  (How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done) by Dave Crenshaw.  This business novel follows Phil, an executive coach, as he teaches his client, Helen, and the employees of her clothing company how they can become more productive by eliminating the costs (financial, time, relational, etc) of multitasking. 

After Phil helps Helen analyze her daily workflow, they determine she spends only thirty minutes of every hour focusing on a particular task with the rest of the time spent unproductively switchtasking.  Of those thirty minutes, only ten are spent productively working without interruption.  The author uses the words switchtasking and background tasking to better identify two types of actions most of us refer to as multitasking.  Switchtasking being the continual switching from one task to another and background tasking being the simultaneous performance of two tasks where only one of them requires mental effort. 

Although this book is written in narrative format, the author does include several quotes in the sidebars to further his point one of which is from William R. Stixrud, Ph.D., neuropsychologist in an interview with Scholastic, “The brain is a lot like a computer.  You have several screens open on your desktop, but you’re able to think about only one at a time.” Another quote along the same line is from Rene Marois, Ph.D., Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt Univeristy, “Our…research offers neurological evidence that the brain cannot effectively do two things at once.”  Armed with the above research and through multiple exercises to prove the point, Phil sets out to show Helen why multitasking is a myth.

After Phil has sufficiently proven to Helen the myth of multitasking, he proceeds to explain the cost of switchtasking by using the econominic principle of “switching cost.”  When explained in terms of the bottom line, Helen begins to realize the cost (loss of time, focus, and productivity) of switchtasking in terms of personal productivity.  The author includes this quote from Time Management, Harvard Business School, “Switching costs result when people must go back and review what they’ve done before they can resume work on a task.  The more complicated the task…the greater the cost.”  After Phil coaches Helen through establishing new routines and time budgets which effectively eliminate the costs of switchtasking by decreasing interruptions and scheduling uninterrupted time to concentrate on a single task at a time, he returns to speak to her entire staff.

PERSONAL APPLICATION:
Ok.  End of book review (LOL).  Now for a few words explaining why I took time to read a book on multitasking.  Many of my real life friends say they don’t know how in the world I get so much done in a given time period and they usually say it must be that I’m a great multitasker.  However, according to this book, I’m not a multitasker.  In fact, I’m not even much of a switchtasker.  I am, however, pretty good at background tasking, sticking to a time budget (figured the same as a financial budget switching minutes for dollars), and delegating (LOL)!

This book was recommended several months ago by someone on a scrapbooking yahoo loop I belong to when we were discussing our LOM assignments and the advice to work on it for fifteen minutes each day.  I mentioned that I function better with setting aside a significant amount of time for such assignments instead of trying to spend 15 minutes a day on them.  I reasoned that I just don’t function effectively that way and I even explained that it takes me so long to figure out where I left off (specifically in regard to scrapbooking) that it makes better sense for me to set aside a couple of hours at a time for the assignments instead of trying to fit in 15 minutes here and there in an already swamped daily schedule especially considering these assignments are not conducive to background tasking.  IOW, I can fold laundry while giving a spelling test, give math time drills while doing the dishes, or talk on the phone while cleaning.  I can’t, however, do any of those things and concentrate on something like sorting photos, paying bills, or other things which require mental effort. 

So, for those who have asked me how I get so much done, it’s really pretty simple:

1.  If I’m doing an activity which doesn’t require much mental effort, 90% of the time I’m also doing something else at the same time. (background tasking)

2.  I don’t take on more outside (meaning outside the home) projects or activities than I know I have time to commit to them.  (time budget)

3.  I learned the value of training and delegating in the workplace early on in my career days as an administrator for three physical therapy clinics.  However, when I came “home” I didn’t think to apply those same principles until my dear friend DeEtta from Choosing Joy pointed out to me that I didn’t have to do everything and couldn’t possibly do it at all and homeschool.  So, while I still do a ton of things here around the house, I also make it a point of training the kids at an early age to do many things which frees me up to take care of the things which need my direction attention. (delegation)

I think that about covers most everything from the book and answers some of the questions I’ve recently been asked by people who think I have a ton of energy and must not get enough sleep.  I don’t have all that much energy anymore and I get a full 8 hours of sleep a night (and usually manage a short nap during the day as well).