Your Eyes Want You to Multitask. Resist!
April 24th, 2007 (12:00pm) Judi Sohn 11 Comments
Suw Charman recently posted an article on Corante where she begins: “Deep down, we all know it. Multitasking is bad for productivity.” We know that, too.
Later in the article, she realizes that she can eliminate multitasking by using dictation software:
Whilst I was dictating, I had a bit of a mini-epiphany. Despite having all the usual applications and websites open that haunt me on a daily basis, I was much more tightly focused on what I was doing. Because I was speaking aloud and not writing, I found I wasn’t spending half as much time looking at the computer screen as usual - instead, I was gazing off into the middle distance, scrutinising the door jam or staring at the ceiling. I only noticed that there were Twitter messages or IMs to read when I glanced back at the screen. Even though I felt awkward dictating, I got closer to a state of actual concentration than I have in a goodly long time.
Was Suw’s epiphany about voice recognition software, or was it all about her realization that when she didn’t look at the computer, she got more done?
If Twitter was audio conversation, and RSS feeds were all podcasts, and our email was read to us…we’d have no choice but to deal with it one at a time. If all that audio input coming at us all once, we’d only hear what amounts to white noise. It is a lot easier to focus on one thing visually, while still being aware of what you’re seeing in your peripheral vision, than it is to filter out one stream of sound in a lot of noise.
Now look at your own screen and see how many tabs you have open, the email application that’s running in the backround with enough of the window poking through so you can see that the word “Inbox” is bold with new mail. Maybe Twitter, IM and Skype are all going and visible somewhere on your monitor(s).
The challenge isn’t in taking in all that visual stimuli. We can do that. We know what we’re looking at, even when there’s a lot to see at one time. Regardless of how much we can process visually, we process much less simultaneously with the other senses. It’s not multitasking that’s the enemy, it’s peripheral vision. Right now, I’m looking at this text field in WordPress, but I know it wouldn’t take much for that Twitterific window at the far corner of my 2nd display to pull my attention when I catch it updating out of the corner of my eye.
The steps we need for action can only happen one at a time. We say one word at a time. We write or type one sentence at a time. We are physically in one place at a time.
Your eyes want you to multitask and do everything at once. Resist. Like Suw learned, use dictation software like Dragon Naturally Speaking to get your thoughts out. You can always edit and clean it up later. Have Text-to-Speech software read content to you, which will stop you from skimming all over the page.
How many times do you complain that you have so much going on but you didn’t get anything done? Next time that happens, close your eyes. You might find yourself more productive when you absolutely need to be.
11 Comments Post your own comment
Patrick says: April 24th, 2007 12:53pm
It’s interesting, but I actually find that it’s when I multi-task that I’m most productive. I think it depends on who you ask. At this point I don’t have 30 thousand tasks to complete by the end of the day and I find myself distracted, not being able to focus properly in the 2 or 3 things that I need to look into at this point.
Also, I’ve learned to organize my thoughts as I type, having the wonderful “backspace” and “undo” features to help me correct my course. If I dictated everything I did, I would probably spend more time preparing and organizing my thoughts and my “speech” than getting things done. And then I would have to go back to it 1003 times to change, correct and re-dictate… but maybe that’s just me.
Franklyn Galusha says: April 24th, 2007 1:46pm
It’s true, most of us can benefit from the focus that dictation software allows.
I’ve been using dragon naturally speaking for approximately four years. I’m a marketing strategist. It’s not uncommon for me to spend 14 to 16 hours a day in front of my computer monitor. It’s nice to be able to setback and listen to it read to me and give my eyes a welcome rest.
Well just thought I would share my thoughts, by the way a good article.
Franklyn Galusha
Marketing strategist
http://www.franklynsBay.com
Will says: April 24th, 2007 1:49pm
weird. -sometimes when I write fiction, I close my eyes while typing. -Seems to support your theory.
ebrown says: April 24th, 2007 2:03pm
OK, this is good. I’ve recently written about a need for “margin” and simplification in our lives for over committing on a macro level, but this hits home on a micro level.
Here I sit amongst comps for a freelance project, business cards from people I met at the last networking event, tear outs regarding articles I want to write on, and magazines and papers that I have yet to read. How pathetic is that?
I have not used voice recognition software but I have been thinking about taking the plunge. I have a dozen micro-cassettes from an interview I had with my Dad about his days as a pilot flying AF1. Anybody have a good recommendation for software to get these into my MacBook Pro for editing within Word?
Appreciate the article and any insights!
-Eric
Zer0_chris says: April 24th, 2007 2:04pm
Would that epiphany you had will dictating be considered multi-tasking? Just wondering-
gotta go catch this IM /send an email /feed my fish
tessawsome1 says: April 24th, 2007 5:48pm
hey whats up?
ukmagician says: April 25th, 2007 4:55am
What I really need is another pair of hands… and eyes, maybe another mouth and ears for the phone as well,…. hmmm, this is starting to sound like staff!
ken white says: April 25th, 2007 6:47am
You should check out our TextAloud product and voices at
http://www.nextup.com
m nassal says: April 25th, 2007 9:21am
Interesting post. I must be really ADD, because I listen to podcasts, have email read to me by my Mac, while working in other applications on my computer.
It is a bad habit and in the end probably less productive that if I focused on one thing, but I just cant help myself :-)
Mediavorous » Blog Archive » Nice post about saying “No!” to multitasking over at WebWorkerDaily says: April 28th, 2007 3:52pm
[...] Shortly after I finished my last post on “Islands of Total Attention” I saw a post from Judi Sohn from last week about how our promiscuous eyes are the human sense most likely to engage in multitasking. It’s worth a read. [...]
Fresh Lime Soda episode 5: Dragon, multitasking « Fresh Lime Soda says: May 18th, 2007 9:47am
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