Is multitasking damaging your productivity?
By Matt Wilson | Posted: March 12, 2013
If a survey of marketing and advertising executives by The Creative Group is to be believed, multitasking is great. More than half of the 500 executives surveyed said the practice somewhat or greatly improves productivity. Only about 16 percent said it hindered it.
如果創意集團的市場營銷和廣告主管的調查是可信的，那麼多重任務處理是偉大的。的接受調查的500強企業高管有超過半數表示的練習做法有些或極大地提高了生產效率。只有約16％的受訪者表示，這會阻礙它。
When Ragan Communications CEO Mark Ragan asked a panel of women in PR why that field is dominated by women, they answered that they're better multitaskers.
當Ragan通信CEO馬克·拉根詢問調查一組PR女性為什麼婦女在該領域佔主導地位， 他們回答說，他們在有多重任務時表現更好。
But what if multitasking isn't all that useful? Productivity experts point to research that says it may actually be detrimental to effectively getting work done. It depends on how you define the term and what types of tasks you're performing.
但是，假使多重任務處理並非都有用呢？生產力專家研究說，它實際上可能對有效地完成工作是不利的。這取決於你如何定義期限與正在執行的任務類型。
The problems
問題種類
Studies (such as this one) show that multitasking "hampers creativity and increases error," says Diane Gayeski, dean and professor of strategic communications at the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca University.
研究顯示（如）黛安說：多重任務處理“阻礙創造力和提高錯誤，”，任職於羅伊·公園伊薩卡大學通信學院的院長和戰略溝通的Diane Gayeski教授說。
"Through my 30-plus years of consulting, I've found that most performance problems are caused by too much information, not a lack of information or training," she says.
Author and productivity coach Walter G. Meyer cites a study in which people were asked to pay attention to three things on a TV screen at once: two news tickers and an anchorperson.
“藉由我30多年的諮詢裡，我發現大多數績效性問題的肇因是過多信息，而不是缺乏信息或培訓，”她說。
作者和生產力教練沃爾特·G.邁耶援引了一項研究，該研究要求人們在電視屏幕上一次注意三件事情：兩則新聞速報和主持人。
"When quizzed about the news show they had just seen, they had much less retention and comprehension than other volunteers who watched the same stories, but reported one at a time with no ticker or sidebar," he says.
“當被問及他們剛剛看到的消息顯示，他們比看到同樣故事的其他志願者在保留和理解比少很多，更不用說跟一次只看報導但沒有看新聞快訊或幻燈片者了”他說。
Meyer adds that multitasking is really performing "three things, one at a time, interrupted by the other two."
Management consultant Kathleen Brush says she's seen it firsthand in meetings when clients are tapping away on their phones, yet insist they're multitasking.
邁耶補充說，多重任務真正執行“三件事，一次一個，但被其他兩個打斷。”
管理顧問凱瑟琳說，他看到了第一手的資料即在會議當客戶正聚精會神的在自己的手機上，還堅持，她們正進行多重任務。
"When they say this, I ask them a question about the last point I made," she says. "In 100 percent of the cases, they either got it wrong or, incredibly, asked me to repeat it. The human brain isn't a computer with multi-processors. It only has one processor."
“當他們這樣說時，我問他們關於我做的最後一個重點的問題，”她說。“在這案例有100％的情況，他們要么不是聽錯了，或就是令人難以置信的，問我再說一遍，人類的大腦不是多處理器的電腦，它只有一個處理器。”
The nuances
The brain actually has something akin to two processors, according to change management consultant Marianne Carlson.
"Different parts of the brain are, as you may know, responsible for different kinds of tasks," she says. "The part of the brain responsible for concentrating on new tasks and creativity, for example, differs from the part that handles routine, memorized activities."
根據變更管理顧問瑪麗安卡爾森 大腦實際上有些類似到兩個處理器。
不同部位的大腦，如你所知道，負責不同的任務，“她說。”大腦有些部分，負責集中於新的任務和創造力，例如，不同的處理常規，記憶活動的部分。”
Multitasking is fine if you're using the part of the brain that deals with the activities you can do on autopilot, Carlson says, but creative work, which is done using the prefrontal cortex, requires focus.
卡爾森說: 如果你使用的是大腦中的一部分，處理的活動，多重任務處理是很好，你可以做的自動駕禦，但是，需要創造性的工作重點，使用前額葉皮層，則須專注。
"If you're listening to a presentation in a meeting, it might be OK, therefore, to multitask by doing something routine, like knitting or stuffing envelopes, because those secondary tasks don't require work in the prefrontal cortex," she says. "But you probably shouldn't multitask during the presentation by responding to emails or drafting proposals, as those activities are prefrontal cortex activities, as is listening to the presentation."
“她說：”如果您正在收聽的是在會議演示，它可能是確定的，因此，多重任務適合做一些常規的，如針織或信封裝封，因為這些輔助任務並不需要前額葉皮層來運作。“但你可能不應該一心多用於回覆電子郵件在展示或為建議打草稿，因為這些活動是前額葉皮層的活動，如正在聽演示文稿”。
Productivity consultant Clare Kumar says it's a matter of defining what multitasking is. If you're managing a lot of projects at once, but focusing on one thing at a time, that's very productive, she says.
生產力顧問克萊爾·庫馬爾說，需定義這什麼是多重任務處理。她說，如果你一次需管理很多項目，但在同一時間專注在一件事上，這是非常有成效的。
Practical advice
實用建議。
Laurie Gray, an attorney and founder of Socratic Parenting, offers some examples of productive multitasking, and what isn't so productive:
"Looking through your junk email folder while you're on hold on the telephone, deleting those that are truly junk and moving those that may not be junk into your inbox for more careful review later, is productive multitasking," she says. "But the moment you have a client on the phone, you need to give him or her your full attention and avoid all distractions."
Laurie Gray，律師及Socratic Parenting的創始人，提供了多重任務處理效率生產的一些例子，什麼則是不那麼有效率。
“她說，”在你正在講電話的同時 你可蒐尋您的垃圾郵件文件夾，刪除那些真正的垃圾以及移動那些無法到您的收件箱中的非垃圾信件，待會再更仔細的審查，這是多重任務處理生產。“但是，當你手機上有一個客戶端在，你需要給他或她所有你的注意力吸引，避免所有的干擾。”
Meyer suggests grouping similar tasks together. Part of the reason multitasking may not be all that effective is that it takes time to switch gears between different jobs, he says.
邁耶建議一起組分組相似的任務。他說，部分原因是多重任務可能不是都有效率的，它需要時間來切換不同工作之間的齒輪。
"If you do spend 48 minutes of an hour efficiently finishing tasks A, B, and C then it is OK to take a break, walk around the block, check Facebook, and clear your head before diving into the next task," he says.
Kumar suggests setting aside 30- to 90-minute blocks of "focus time."
“他說：”如果你花一個48分鐘有效地完成任務A，B和C，那麼稍做休息是ok的。在區域間走動，看看Facebook在進入下一個任務之前，讓你的腦袋清醒 。
庫馬爾建議預留30 - 90分鐘的“專注時間”。
"We are living in a constant state of always-on, high-cortisol accessibility. This, too, damages focus and productivity."
“我們始終保持在恆定的上通狀態下生活，高皮質醇暢行的情況下，這，太損害專注和生產力。”
Matt Wilson is a staff writer for Ragan.com.
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