In the first part of this series, I discussed the misguided notion that continues to be perpetuated regarding the ability of humans to multitask.  In this second part, I’m going to talk about one of the reasons why we feel that we need to try to multitask – time management.

Going back again to the experiences we had while we were in school, I’m sure we all remember one time or another where we didn’t finish all the homework we were assigned.  As a result, we’d have either our parents or our teachers telling us that we weren’t managing our time well.  But here’s the thing – how can any of us really manage time?  We can’t put time on hold so we can take a break and do something else, and we certainly can’t get more time if we have to take care of something we hadn’t anticipated.  Whether we lose an hour of work time because we were goofing off or because something unexpected comes up makes no difference since either way, we can’t get that hour back.

So what was it that prevented us from completing our homework assignments in time if it wasn’t poor time management?  Looking back now, I think we can all appreciate that the problem was Click here to continue reading »”Unravelling The Myths of Multitasking and Time Management – Part 2″

There has been a fair amount of discussion – if not debate – over a recent study by Stanford University researchers examining the effectiveness of multitasking. Essentially, the study found that the more people tried to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, the worse they did performing any of those tasks. While some dyed-in-the-wool multitaskers have understandably wanted to challenge these findings, it’s hard to ignore the scientific evidence, if not our own real-world experiences.

As the lead researcher of the Stanford study points out, psychologists have already demonstrated that it’s physically impossible for humans to multitask.  On the surface, this makes sense since, unlike computers, we have only one processor – our brain.  Of course, there’s something more tangible that we can all relate to that further establishes this fact. Click here to continue reading »”Unravelling The Myths of Multitasking and Time Management – Part 1″