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The limits of multitasking

Posted by mwelch March 27, 2007 03:56 PM

Source: BoingBoing

We've covered continuous partial attention here before. And now recent studies say that "multitasking may be an illusion that actually hurts productivity and increases error." While our brain is capable of trillions of synaptic connections, we just aren't that good at doing two things at once, let alone three or four. One study found that it took an average of 15 minutes following an interruption like an incoming email (or reading this blog post) for workers to return to dedicated mental tasks.

Related:
Cure your email addiction
A.D.D. 'R Us
The divided American attention span
Do parents make better managers?

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/26/nyt_on_multitasking_.html

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