How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking | Hacker News Reader

How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking

blogs.hbr.org

136 pointsitsandrew31 comments

I think it's more interesting to look at what the crossing point is where it becomes useful to multitask.

Surely, when on hold with some company listening to "your call is valuable to us; please do not hang up; the expected wait time is 45 minutes" he wouldn't advise to just be on the phone.

When I need to run a 5 minute test suite before checking in some code, should I go read my email while I wait? What if it's 30 seconds instead?

Where is that point where switching to another task is the right thing to do?

This is a great point, and something I struggle with. Although, I think it combines the problem of focus as well.

While waiting for my project to compile and start, I switch to my browser, get lost in HN or e-mail and 5 or 10 min later forget what I was doing in the first place. When this happens several times a day, it becomes a real problem.

This is one of my biggest problems. When compilation, image creation, or device flashing takes longer than ~1 minute, then I will switch to the browser and get lost. 15-30 minutes later I will discover that my build, flash file, whatever was done, and will resume work (and feel really bad about it).

Instead of browsing, I do situps, pushups, etc. I get back to work the second my simulation finishes.

Well, sometimes I do that. It is effective when I do it.

Interesting. I try to keep a newspaper or periodical handy, something offline and inert. While my project compiles, I read a few hundred words and do not get so engrossed I lose my original train of thought.

I think my colleagues would start to look even more funnily at me than the already do if I started doing this. Especially since we work in an open office environment. If I had an office I would definitely consider.

For now I think I will try and heed troutwine's advice: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1379082

I'm still working on this, too. Read the classic NADD description: http://randsinrepose.com/archives/2003/07/10/nadd.html if you don't know it yet ;)

If you use Visual Studio, you can setup a sound to play when the build is finished.

Setting a timer (even for just 3 minutes) works well for this problem.

There's definitely a place where it gets too extreme. I've caught myself going to check IMs and emails while a page loads in the browser. I pause in my writing at the end of a sentence and I flick my gaze over to check for new mail.

I think the point at which you can switch is when you can honestly expect to give the thing you are switching to your full attention until it is complete. So sure, go answer a few emails during a compile, but only check for the compile to be done in between emails.

Absolutely... I think something like Growl is useful here to let you know "your compile is done" or "your tests are finished running".

If it's just reading HN I could see this, but I don't think it's a good solution. The very problem we have is too many notifications. Whether they are mail or test suites, they interrupt you and take your focus, even briefly, away from what you're currently doing.

I turn off notifications on mail, Skype chat, IRC, etc. If it's not more important than the other things I might be doing, it doesn't get to interrupt me.

Add a command to make a sound and/or push the build window / ide forward at the end of the compile. It really is as simple as that if you want it.

I've made a pomodoro timer app that also gives me a summary over which apps and websites I have used during the last 25 minutes when a pomodoro is over. (http://www.beatpoints.com/cherrytomato)

This is good feedback about whether I actually managed to focus on the task that I planned.

However, I find that pomodoros are not the right granularity - to really be productive, I need to focus on one task for an entire day (related: pg's Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html). This is still really hard for me to do.

Would be nice to have a cross platform version of this :)

I agree :-) For now, it's just a hobby project but if it becomes popular then I might put the energy and time into porting it.

Open sourcing it may be an option... then someone else would do the dirty work for you.

On Mac OS X, press ALT+CMD+H to hide all windows but the active one. I've been doing it the last couple of months and it's a great way to avoid distractions and focus.

That actually hides all other applications, not windows. Still, the effect is the same if either only one window is open in the current application or its windows completely overlap each other.

While reading this article, I realized that somewhere around half-way through I had switched to another window to send an IM about something that had popped into my mind. It was a bit ironic.

I used to do work in 20-minute sprints. It was originally for eye strain, but I found myself very productive for those 20 minutes, as if I was driven to be sure I got things done such that the break didn't severely interrupt me. It really helped me focus on results.

I wonder how this result pivots on demographic elements, like gender, age, educational level etc.

Is it just me or did the word "multitasking" morph in meaning over the last decade? I used to hear it to describe doing many different, unrelated tasks over the course of a day, week, or month.

Great post!

We've all been in the state of flow when we truly give the task at hand our complete attention. Quite impossible while attempting to split your attention.

I think its also worth thinking about the running dialog many people have in their heads. Focus on the past or the future in your head instead of being fully present in this moment is just as distracting.

It is funny, how people trying to make old stuff new again and again. =)

The power of concentration, focus, impulse refusal and self-control were praised even in Upanishads. Then the Buddha become a great teacher to everyone, next this teachings was evolved into Zen and so on.

Most resent psychiatrist rediscover it again and again as 'gestalt therapy', 'curing experience', 're-framing' and other 'great findings'.

Read something on today's hot topic 'social intelligence' and you will find re-selling exactly the same ideas (from Hindu/Buddhism teachings) along with co-called 'scientific evidence' like scans of brain's activity and the like.

I didn't even mention the Matrix movie =)

In the essence, multitasking is about to decrease your productivity, because this misconception is based on concept that came from an IT field.

In IT multitasking emerged because you have too many unused CPU circles and they could be used to do some additional, background processes. Even today and average server spend most of its time in the idle loops.

In a dramatic contrast, our mind have no idle loops or unused powers. Often people have some deficits instead, like lack of focus, inability to concentrate long enough, to pay attention and so on.

Of course, it is acceptable to listen your ipod while you're doing some hard, dumb, physical job, that distracts your attention from the quite boring task. But if you're trying to use your mental capacity any distractions reducing your efficiency.

Some people are confusing multitasking with creativity, which is an ability to associate and link together things from quite different fields (say, Buddhism and modern cognitive therapy =)

So, it's much better to try to learn some thousands-year-old techniques to boost your concentration, focus, attention and some relaxation and priming up methods, instead of reading crappy blog posts. =)

> So, it's much better to try to learn some thousands-year-old techniques to boost your concentration, focus, attention and some relaxation and priming up methods, instead of reading crappy blog posts. =)

Buddhism had to start as crappy blog posts, too. =)

From the end of the article:

As I was writing this, Daniel, my two-year-old son, walked into my office, climbed on my lap, and said "Monsters, Inc. movie please."

So, here we are, I'm finishing this piece on the left side of my computer screen while Daniel is on my lap watching a movie on the right side of my computer screen.

To which he adds the punchline: "Sometimes, it is simply impossible to resist a little multitasking."

Your selective quote there was a bit out of context for my understanding. It encouraged me to read the article in full, but afterward, I felt it was misleading.

Yes; we read the article as well ... your point is?

Actually, I haven't read it yet - I tend to skim the comments first and then decide whether or not the article is worth my time. I prefer to avoid articles where most of the comments lament that "this post is bollocks/misleading/media spam."

I'm not saying the OP is any better than you accused... I'm just pointing out that not everyone in the HN audience reads the same way.

To be fair he likely lost focus, checked some email, read another article and had forgotten his point and just thought "Meh, I'll go with it."

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