Multi-tasking vs Quality Work

[Trinity]

I prefer to refer to "deadlines" as either guidelines or suggestions, seems more accurate to me

[booyalab]

I got fired for mentioning a study that proved the quality of work suffers when your attention is diverted between multiple tasks, EVEN THOUGH I qualified it by recognizing it's occasional necessity.

[ajblaise]

wow i never heard of an introvert getting fired for not being able to keep their mouths shut.

[INTJMom]

Originally Posted by booyalab

I got fired for mentioning a study that proved the quality of work suffers when your attention is diverted between multiple tasks, EVEN THOUGH I qualified it by recognizing it's occasional necessity.

SERIOUSLY!
There sounds like there must be more to the story than that.
How long ago was that?
I mean, now they have studies to prove it and everything.
According to some of the people in this thread, not only CAN they miulti-task, they PREFER to multi-task.
So, go figure.

[bluebell]

I do occasionally do 'true' multitasking. The one which sticks in my head was organising a complicated urgent meeting on the phone while simultaneously typing a briefing paper for an entirely separate meeting. (I've since learnt to speak up if my workload gets to that extreme, so I haven't been in that situation since then)

However, I don't find it particularly difficult to multitask on one topic. I often find myself googling and hunting through websites for information to answer someone's question while simultaneously talking to them on the phone. I'm mostly on autopilot for that, though - both the conversation and googling. It only gets a bit tricky when the other person is angry about something and I have to calm them down at the same time as well as looking up websites.

Originally Posted by Trinity

I prefer to refer to "deadlines" as either guidelines or suggestions, seems more accurate to me

*peers at Trinity's alleged Jness*

[INTJMom]

Originally Posted by bluebell

...
However, I don't find it particularly difficult to multitask on one topic. I often find myself googling and hunting through websites for information to answer someone's question while simultaneously talking to them on the phone. I'm mostly on autopilot for that, though - both the conversation and googling. It only gets a bit tricky when the other person is angry about something and I have to calm them down at the same time as well as looking up websites.
...

Ha ha! I consider that ONE task!

[bluebell]

Originally Posted by INTJMom

Ha ha! I consider that ONE task!

Hmm. True, I guess. Someone mentioned 'true' multitasking earlier (as opposed to the rapid jumping between tasks) and I was curious enough to mentally go through what I do at work to see what could be described as such. I think it's more of multitasking activity if you have no idea what you're looking for or if it even exists and you're just hoping you'll come across something relevant quickly enough so you don't have to call the person back later.

[INTJMom]

I think the research has proven that in reality, no one actually can think about two or more things at once.
What people really mean when they say multi-tasking is fast switch-tasking... the ability to switch between tasks quickly,
none of which are finished yet, therefore keeping several open jobs going at once.
Under pressure, I can do that for a limited amount of time.

I'm reminded of the guys they used to show on tv variety shows - the Plate Spinners.
They'd get a plate spinning on the top of a stick, then get another one going, and then another one, then he'd run between them all, keeping them all going at once.

While it's entertaining to watch, I would hate a job where I was expected to do that all day long every day.
YouTube - Plate spinner Van Buren plate spinning on TV Generation Game

[Trinity]

Originally Posted by bluebell

I often find myself googling and hunting through websites for information to answer someone's question while simultaneously talking to them on the phone.

See now I'd usually be on google searching for information for myself while pretending to be listening to the person on the phone. Does that count as multitasking

*peers at Trinity's alleged Jness*

Yah I dunno *shrug*

[Oleander]

If we think about it a bit harder, everybody multitasks at aa low level all the time. There's nearly always something going on in the background ready to respond to an emergency quite apart from automatic processes like breathing. Even some tasks are really multiple when you think about them so it's a bit arbitrary to talk about 'multitasking' altogether.

It was a computer term and that business of fast switching between tasks is essentially what it referred to. There's a few exceptions up in the multi-processor supercomputer range where a number of processes really are going on at once but they don't know about each other - it's more like a network all in one box or even on one board. When it comes to conscious activity, we really switch attention more than carry several tasks out together.