The Virtue of Mono-tasking
One of my morning rituals during my first 30 minutes in the office is to read my news feeds. I have been using and abusing Google Reader service since I was introduced to it by my girlfriend. It's a wonderful way of having your own "newspaper" that only has the articles that you really want to read.
Well, that is not why I'm writing here today, really. The reason why I brought up Google Reader is that I came across a recent article over at Inquirer.net about a study on the advantages of Multi-tasking in terms of production:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20090826-222067/Multitaskers-distracted-by-everythingstudy
In summary, the article discussed that heavy multitaskers are mostly distracted by the little things that could overall divert them from what they must do. A perfect example of this is reading up on new Programming techniques on Wikipedia like JSF or Symfony, only to arrive at Harry Potter Wikia because you're dying to know how Voldemort died, while at the side you are frequently looking at your open Gmail inbox and open Feed reader for interesting articles that is really nothing related to what you are really working on.
The people from the internet age, with me as a perfect scapegoat, has excessive problems with maintaining a single task to have a full attention to. I am, in all honesty, having trouble controlling my impulse to look at something other than what is required because I find them more interesting to read. Or having sudden interest in reading up on the things that just randomly popped into my head. Yes, I admit, I have a severe tendency to be distracted by almost anything because, yes, I've been a multi-tasker for so long.
This is why sometimes my productivity is questioned or my dedication is doubted. I'm lucky that my new work is very light, as I have a full list of things I have to do and when I should do them. But the next few months or a year, this might not be the case anymore. Tasks would start piling up, and my work output would start to decrease.
I have talked about this with Jen, my girlfriend, since she's the opposite of me. She can only do things one at a time, because that is how she function to work. I did ask her at a certain point, to try to do a lot of things at once. Needless to say, I was wrong in doing that. I'm really actually very envious of her mono-tasking skills and her obsessive compulsive-ness to her to-do list. I never had to deal with that because my lack of discipline hated to-do lists or careful planning.
Now, realizing that I'm doing something wrong with my way of doing mundane tasks, I sought to find a solution. To-do lists? Yes please. Day planning? Hell yeah! Organizer for dates and scheduling? Bring it on. Although at the macro level I can still plan ahead, the micro level is what needs shaking up.
Gone will be my oft open Google Reader and Gmail. Gone will be excessive tabbing and unrelated Wikipedia articles. Gone will be everything that will not be helpful to my task.
And hello to a new friend of mine, http://www.nowdothis.com/
Well, that is not why I'm writing here today, really. The reason why I brought up Google Reader is that I came across a recent article over at Inquirer.net about a study on the advantages of Multi-tasking in terms of production:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20090826-222067/Multitaskers-distracted-by-everythingstudy
In summary, the article discussed that heavy multitaskers are mostly distracted by the little things that could overall divert them from what they must do. A perfect example of this is reading up on new Programming techniques on Wikipedia like JSF or Symfony, only to arrive at Harry Potter Wikia because you're dying to know how Voldemort died, while at the side you are frequently looking at your open Gmail inbox and open Feed reader for interesting articles that is really nothing related to what you are really working on.
The people from the internet age, with me as a perfect scapegoat, has excessive problems with maintaining a single task to have a full attention to. I am, in all honesty, having trouble controlling my impulse to look at something other than what is required because I find them more interesting to read. Or having sudden interest in reading up on the things that just randomly popped into my head. Yes, I admit, I have a severe tendency to be distracted by almost anything because, yes, I've been a multi-tasker for so long.
This is why sometimes my productivity is questioned or my dedication is doubted. I'm lucky that my new work is very light, as I have a full list of things I have to do and when I should do them. But the next few months or a year, this might not be the case anymore. Tasks would start piling up, and my work output would start to decrease.
I have talked about this with Jen, my girlfriend, since she's the opposite of me. She can only do things one at a time, because that is how she function to work. I did ask her at a certain point, to try to do a lot of things at once. Needless to say, I was wrong in doing that. I'm really actually very envious of her mono-tasking skills and her obsessive compulsive-ness to her to-do list. I never had to deal with that because my lack of discipline hated to-do lists or careful planning.
Now, realizing that I'm doing something wrong with my way of doing mundane tasks, I sought to find a solution. To-do lists? Yes please. Day planning? Hell yeah! Organizer for dates and scheduling? Bring it on. Although at the macro level I can still plan ahead, the micro level is what needs shaking up.
Gone will be my oft open Google Reader and Gmail. Gone will be excessive tabbing and unrelated Wikipedia articles. Gone will be everything that will not be helpful to my task.
And hello to a new friend of mine, http://www.nowdothis.com/