Multitasking, Anyone?

Multitasking, Anyone?

Anyone pushing you hard for Multitasking?  I won't blame them. Likely, they see all of its upsides and very little, if at all, of its downsides and I'll confess that many years back, I was so gung-ho Multitasking until, one day, when I was attending my battery of IBM trainings, I learned that although IBM was aggressively marketing MPP's [massive parallel processors], deep into its architecture, the processor was breaking up processes into MULTI-THREADS📗📙📘

Even this comparative chart shows us an apples-to-apples comparison of our brain when Single-tasking versus Multitasking and what does this tell us?  THAT doing only a thing at a time is a surprisingly powerful way to become more productive.  ON the surface, this makes zero sense on the premise that doing more is the faster path to productivity❓❓❓

BUT today, I will stand my ground and vehemently argue that that ISN'T the case here.  Doing more than one thing at a time is a great way to become busier and it's usually a more engaging way of working.  When we try doing multiple things at the same time, our brain is more stimulated and it releases DOPAMINE💎💎💎

BUT study after study has shown that while MULTITASKING can be stimulating, and may even make us feel more productive, it invariably makes us less productive.  WHY?  Because the attention we can give to WHAT'S in front of us gets limited.  Every moment, our brain is flooded with information [and that includes sights, sounds, words, thoughts] BUT it can only focus on so much✅✅✅

The very rich history of chess as a game is peppered with stories of chess greats, amongst which is American Bobby Fisher and today, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen is lording it over the field.  BUT how come even the best super-grandmasters spend anywhere from two to six hours just for one game when all along they are SINGLE-TASKING?  It's because that myth about MULTITASKING has been shattered and destroyed even as we speak now❗❗❗