There's some useful neurological information to back up what you're saying about multitasking: essentially, that our brains are designed to pay attention to only one thing at once. That doesn't rule out effective multitasking, as long as only one of the things you're doing requires any real attention (I go on about this in more detail on The Willpower Engine at http://www.willpowerengine.com/?p=567 ). But the kinds of multitasking that you're talking about do seem to greatly reduce our efficiency by causing to have to put away one frame of mind and set up another, then switch back, over and over again.

i am going crazy ! !

“Do you need any help?”

“No, I can reach my…whatever just fine thank you.”

“Why is it you never need help?” she asked.

You see, when everyone in the ER is bustling around multi-tasking the Burn is just as likely to be sitting and scratching. I like to think I can “multi-task” with the best of them. You want to know how I do it? I don't multi-task.

Guess what. Nobody really multi-tasks. You can only do one thing at a time. Great “multi-taskers” are really great prioritizers.

Stop, take a breath and look at your multiple tasks. Decide which is the most important and that's the only thing you have to worry about right now. Once that's done stop look and do the next one. That's really all there is to it.

You'll find this really cuts down on the stress and exponentially increases your scratching time. You'll also find that some tasks keep getting prioritized down until it's discharge time and guess what. They're suddenly not so important.

Now it's much more important to discharge Frank Footstink than to get a UDS that you know will be positive for everything except water.

As you get better you can break large tasks into smaller steps. You'll actually be able to accomplish smaller steps from seperate tasks, appearing to be doing two things at once. I once ran a trauma code and gave thrombolytic therapy to an acute CVA patient “at the same time”. There literally was no other nurse available because everyone else was multi-tasking like chickens with their heads cut off.

What are the solutions to counter the culture of multi-tasking? Especially in corporate environments where busyness is often mistaken for productivity?

Also, being able to effectively single task requires you to train the mind. A calm focussed mind is indeed powerful, but to get there requires some training. Especially in concentration. Any thoughts, pointers :-)?

1. In the strictest sense, multi-tasking is switching from one task to another–often due to interruption. For example, you're deep into writing a report when someone walks into your cubicle and starts talking about some totally unrelated matter. When that happened to me at work, I could almost feel my brain trying to crank into another gear. Once I had to ask a co-worker, “What are you talking about?” Multi-tasking is not having multiple projects going at work.

2. You asked me for some specifics on the research I mentioned in my first comment. At Carnegie Mellon University, it's Dr. Marcel Just, for one. If you Goggle “multi-tasking effects,” you'll get zillions more. Another suggestion is Google Scholar, which has more technical studies.

Again, great post on many levels. I want to write on this also when the blogging bootcamp is over.