Ming links to this article about research into “Hypertasking” which suggests that although frantic multi-tasking (with the help of phones, IM, email, feeds, etc., etc., etc.) has the appearance of productivity the reality is of significantly reduced performance on the individual cognitive tasks. This is not the first study to suggest that multi-tasking makes you perform less well – for example this, this and this.
In the comments to Ming’s post there are a range of views expressed but two themes emerge:
* using the tools available today to _filter_ incoming information and tasks, allowing you to concentrate on the important things
* there is indeed a very sharp limit to the power of conscious processing to handle multiple tasks (Miller’s [bliki]SevenPlusOrMinusTwo[/bliki]) but the unconscious mind is capable of many many simultaneous activities.
From my own subjective experience I would suggest that one reason why having too many things to do “simultaneously” hits productivity is because it ignores the way the mind transfers things into unconscious processing.
The trick seems to be to concentrate on one thing sufficiently long that you build up a whole set of pathways relating to it, then “put it down” and move on to something else – the unconscious will still be working away. Do this and you will be surprised how often the answer “just appears” a few hours or days later.
Time-slicing too finely in the conscious domain seems to have the effect that no topic creates enough energy to engage the unconscious learning circuits, so I’m left relying on the distractable power of the conscious alone.
It would be interesting to explore the neuroscience of this a bit further…
From a [bliki]TheoryOfConstraints[/bliki] perspective it would appear that conscious attention is the constraint, so useful questions to consider might be:
* How do I get the most out of my conscious processing power?
* What else do I have to change to allow my conscious attention to work at its best?
* How can I find other ways of processing information (e.g. exploiting my unconscious mind)?
September 9th, 2004 at 02:05
Ah, excellent observation about how our multi-tasking easily interferes with the transfer to the un/sub-conscious. So part of the conscious mind’s job is to put enough energy into something to sufficiently engage the machinery under the hood. And then to move on. Fruitful area for exploration, indeed.
September 12th, 2004 at 18:33
Hi, Julian. Long time no contact – trust you are well.
I noticed via Google that you have caught up with our work on the cognitive-science derived blogging/personal productivity and KM tool I mentioned when I met you last spring.
Re: this post, and specifically:
In the comments to Ming’s post there are a range of views expressed but two themes emerge:
using the tools available today to filter incoming information and tasks, allowing you to concentrate on the important things
there is indeed a very sharp limit to the power of conscious processing to handle multiple tasks (Miller’s SevenPlusOrMinusTwo) but the unconscious mind is capable of many many simultaneous activities.
From my own subjective experience I would suggest that one reason why having too many things to do “simultaneously” hits productivity is because it ignores the way the mind transfers things into unconscious processing.
The trick seems to be to concentrate on one thing sufficiently long that you build up a whole set of pathways relating to it, then “put it down” and move on to something else – the unconscious will still be working away. Do this and you will be surprised how often the answer “just appears” a few hours or days later.
Time-slicing too finely in the conscious domain seems to have the effect that no topic creates enough energy to engage the unconscious learning circuits, so I’m left relying on the distractable power of the conscious alone.
It would be interesting to explore the neuroscience of this a bit further…
Our tool Qumana addresses some of these issues … collecting material (microcontent) to work on now or later … is just a simple gesture … highlight, drag n’ drop …. save as a “PAK” of related microcontent, then when you want to work on it, hit “Publish” and up comes a full-blown WISYWYG editor, with stuff like spell-check and post to multiple destinations. And much more, such as much flexibility with user-defined metadata, and the ability to interact effectively with Matt Mower’s K-Collector, for example.
I would love to have you as a beta tester, given your knowledge and wisdom re: these sorts of issues.
Might you be interested ?
Cheers,
Jon Husband (jon AT wirearchy.com)
September 14th, 2004 at 01:56
“exploiting your subconscious mind” sounds so mechanistic and mean… its not gonna be happy about that at all.
September 15th, 2004 at 08:40
Tim
Thanks for your comment.
Interesting how different frames guide us to different attributions of meaning for the same word. My frame in the post was a systems perspective – in which the subconscious mind (or more precisely the split between conscious and subconscious) is an emergent effect of the way our brains work. From your choice of words I would guess that your framing is along the lines of the subconscious as a separate entity, almost a separate “being” – different frames!
From what I’ve read of “magick” – especially the “chaos” variety – the whole thing is a set of techniques designed to do what I was talking about – use consciousness to exploit the particular strengths of the unconscious – what’s your view?
September 15th, 2004 at 23:25
Of course Hypertasking is inefficient because it incurs switching costs. But the real question is what you can do about it. I hyper-switch because I get bored way too quickly. If I try to concentrate on one thing for very long my brain rebels. It *will* wander off and think about something else, however much I try to keep it in line. I assume that’s just the dynamics of the system.
Now, maybe there’s a long-term solution to training it to concentrate. But I don’t know how to get started on that road. Just *forcing* myself doesn’t seem to work. (And makes me miserable) OTOH indulging may be re-enforcing the bahaviour too.
Frankly I’m not sure what to do except look for coping strategies, which include keeping a small number of tasks on the go at once and trying to force myself only to switch between these. There’s still a switching cost, but maybe faster access to recall these semi-familiar secondary tasks.
September 16th, 2004 at 00:26
Phil
Yes minds do that (wander). Have you tried meditation at all as a way of finding mental focus?
September 25th, 2004 at 20:20
Managing “Boids”?
Denham Grey may have thought he got the last word in our enjoyable conversation over knowledge as a personal vs. social event in the comments to my last post. (Thanks to Denham and everyone who chimed in and tracked-back!) Fat chance! (I’m a lawyer, …