The harm of multitasking is officially confirmed.
Many managers and programmers, especially among the young, sincerely believe that the simultaneous execution of several processes increases the overall productivity of labor. In fact, this is a misconception. Researches of scientists from the Institute of the Brain of the Future at Oxford showed that our “central processor” is completely unsuitable for such a regime, even for the Generation X.
The problem of multitasking is particularly acute among the younger generation. Modern children grow up in a multitasking environment , so that in their youth it is natural for them to watch TV while working, type text while talking on the phone, never take the player out of their ears, etc. It seems to them that labor productivity does not suffer at all, and all the talk on this topic is the cavils of older people, whose brains are not capable of such.
However, in fact, the human brain demonstrates the most dismal results when it is periodically distracted or forced to perform several tasks at the same time. It doesn't matter what tasks you are talking about: driving a car and talking on a cell phone, programming and reading mail, or even just pressing a button during a conversation.
Researches of scientists from the Institute of the Brain of the Future at Oxford were carried out in two groups: young people from 18 to 21 years old and people 35-39 years old. The test subjects had to decipher the numbers in the pictures using a simple code. The results showed that young people, on average, 10% better cope with this task if they are not distracting. But if people are interrupted using SMS or IM, then representatives of different generations demonstrate exactly the same results in speed and accuracy of recognition.
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All the scientists who conducted these experiments, as one, said that after studying the results, they changed their own working habits. Here are their top tips.
1. Check mail as rarely as possible , and more often than once per hour. The study showed that it takes an average of 15 minutes for a person to return to working condition. An average office worker spends 28% of his working time recovering his performance after being distracted.
2. Do not rely on memory . Use special tools such as Tudu lists, diaries to upload tasks from your RAM, and access these lists when you are ready to perform a new task.
3. Do not do too much . Focus on the main tasks and "turn off" unnecessary.
via New York Times
The problem of multitasking is particularly acute among the younger generation. Modern children grow up in a multitasking environment , so that in their youth it is natural for them to watch TV while working, type text while talking on the phone, never take the player out of their ears, etc. It seems to them that labor productivity does not suffer at all, and all the talk on this topic is the cavils of older people, whose brains are not capable of such.
However, in fact, the human brain demonstrates the most dismal results when it is periodically distracted or forced to perform several tasks at the same time. It doesn't matter what tasks you are talking about: driving a car and talking on a cell phone, programming and reading mail, or even just pressing a button during a conversation.
Researches of scientists from the Institute of the Brain of the Future at Oxford were carried out in two groups: young people from 18 to 21 years old and people 35-39 years old. The test subjects had to decipher the numbers in the pictures using a simple code. The results showed that young people, on average, 10% better cope with this task if they are not distracting. But if people are interrupted using SMS or IM, then representatives of different generations demonstrate exactly the same results in speed and accuracy of recognition.
')
All the scientists who conducted these experiments, as one, said that after studying the results, they changed their own working habits. Here are their top tips.
1. Check mail as rarely as possible , and more often than once per hour. The study showed that it takes an average of 15 minutes for a person to return to working condition. An average office worker spends 28% of his working time recovering his performance after being distracted.
2. Do not rely on memory . Use special tools such as Tudu lists, diaries to upload tasks from your RAM, and access these lists when you are ready to perform a new task.
3. Do not do too much . Focus on the main tasks and "turn off" unnecessary.
via New York Times
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/5828/
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