Multi-tasking is Evil! Or is it?

     At  a large corporation at which I once worked, there existed an exercise which is designed to point out the perils of multi-tasking.  This exercise was championed by some executives within the company, and often was trotted out to break up the monotony of the infamous “all-day offsite meeting.”

     Here’s how the test worked:  Participants were asked to set up a ten-line by ten-column grid.  In column one, the subjects were asked to list the first ten letters of the alphabet, in upper case.  In column two, participants were told to list the first ten numerals.  In column three, a list of the first ten Roman numerals was required.  In column four, a list of the first ten lower case letters was asked.  And so on.  The length of time it took to complete the exercise was recorded.

     Then, the subjects were asked to provide the same data – only this time, they were told to enter it column by column.  In other words, list the first upper case letter, then the first numeral, then the first Roman numeral, etc.  The length of time it took to complete this second phase of the drill also was recorded.

     Invariably, Part A of the exercise took less time than Part B, meaning multi-tasking is bad, right?  Multi-tasking means your train of thought is interrupted too often to produce good results, right?

     Not necessarily. 

     A 2012 study by researchers at The Chinese University of Hong Kong showed that those who frequently use different type of media at the same time appear to be better at integrating information from multiple senses, in the case of their study, vision and hearing.  The finding may be linked to the experience the subjects had in spreading their attention to different sources of information while multi-tasking.  Sixty-three people, and this is significant, aged 19-28, took part in the study. 

     Is there a bottom line here?   I believe so.  If you are a manager of people, particularly one who likes his employees to be planted at their desks for eight hours each day, hunkering over their computers seemingly in a trance, you might want to re-think that traditional view – particularly if your workers are under age 30.  It could just be that “Generation Y” – young people who grew up multi-tasking, are wired differently from those of us who grew up in the technological dark ages of the 1960’s and ‘70’s.

     It could just be that the next award winning idea that saves your company money or creates new revenue will come from a 23-year old staffer who is accomplishing great things for you – even while dialed into instant messaging, music, the web, e-mail, online videos or social networking.

     Thanks for taking Just a Minute, or so…..