Multitasking has become a virtue in modern business, but it may come at great cost. While the brain can focus on two tasks simultaneously by splitting labor between hemispheres, managing more than two tasks reduces efficiency significantly. Frequent interruptions cost the average knowledge worker 2.1 hours per day and $588 billion annually for businesses. Multitasking also increases stress levels, which impacts health and reduces creativity needed for innovation. True focus on one task at a time may be more productive approach.

1. Multitasking - The Frankenstein of
Modern Business World
June 2012
New Delhi

2. The ability to do multiple tasks at one time is considered a virtue in
this competitive business culture.
What is it? Are we aware of its consequences??
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3. Multitasking
Multitasking, by traditional definition found in the dictionary is: “the performance of
multiple tasks at one time.” Rather than focusing all available attention on one task
and completing it before moving on, many tasks are accomplished at one time
Thanks to
“To do two things at a time is to do neither”
– Publilious Syrus 1st century BC
Publilious Syrus, a Latin writer of maxims, 3
flourished in the 1st century BC Think Talent Services Confidential

4. Today's generation
is capable of
doing this.
But do we
compromise
something in
doing so ?? 4
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5. Technological help while multitasking
Common statement:
“Role expansions have resulted in workers having to do more with less, and
multiple technologies have made that seem possible”
We often thank Intel but research indicates
some serious loss of business
Research says this:
Technologies often translate into multiple interruption. On average, workers are
Interrupted once every ten and a half minutes.
Once interrupted it takes a worker 23 minutes a day to get back to the task he/she was
working on.
A report from Basex quantified the cost of interruptions. It found that the average
knowledge worker loses 2.1 hours per day to “unimportant interruptions or
distractions.” At $21 per hour, the cost of interruptions to businesses would be $588
billion a year Source: Herman miller study, “The siren
Think Talent Services Confidential song of multitasking” 2007 5

6. Gerald Weinberg proposed Rule of Thumb
(Gerald Weinberg American computer scientist, author and teacher of the psychology and
anthropology of computer software development)
Adding a single project to your workload is profoundly deli-bating by Weinberg
calculation. You lose 20% of your time. By the time you add a third project to
the mix, nearly half your time is wasted in task switching.
Recent study by Mckinsey says, participants who completed tasks in parallel took
up to 30 percent longer and made twice as many errors as those who completed
the same tasks in sequence 6
Think Talent Services Confidential Source: Gerald Weinberg research, 2006

7. How does our Brain function when we Multitask ??
What happens to creativity & stress ?
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8. Multitasking & Brain
“ We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs
simultaneously” - Dr. John Medina (Director of the Brain Center for Applied
Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University)
French biomedical research says:
When it comes to task management, the prefrontal
Cortex of the human brain is key. The anterior part of this
brain region forms the goal or intention.
While working on two task brains split the labor: activity in
the left side of the prefrontal cortex corresponded to one
task while the right side took over the other task.
The research also says the brain can’t efficiently juggle more than two tasks because it
has only two hemispheres available for task management
Source: Science now study, 8
Think Talent Services Confidential “Multitasking splits the brain” 2010

9. Loosing Creativity
“If the firms don’t innovate they will
die” – Philip Kotler (The author of Marketing
Management among dozens of other textbooks and books)
It demands a lot of
creative thinking
Harvard Business School evaluated the
daily work patterns of more than 9,000
individuals working on projects that
required creativity and innovation. They
found that the likelihood of creative
thinking is higher when people focus on
one activity for a significant part of the
day and collaborate with just one other
person
Think Talent Services Confidential Source: Mckinsey study, “Recovering
from information overload” 2011 9

10. Stress is the biggest reason of
reduced Task Engagement
What is the root cause ??
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11. Stress – more and more multitasking
“Multitasking, almost by its very nature, creates stress, and long-term stress, in turn,
is likely to make us less able to multitask”. - Dr. Jordan Grafman to Los Angeles Times
(Director of Traumatic Brain Injury Research at
Kessler Foundation)
One international survey of more than 1,300
managers found “one-third of managers suffer
from ill-health as a direct consequence of stress
associated with information overload.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that stress cost American business about $
10,000 annually per employee – an overall economic impact of about $ 300 billion.
The National Institute for Occupational safety and health estimated that 40% of the
nations workforce is affected by stress, making it the No.1 reason for work disability.
Health at stake
Stress can result in depression and anxiety, and put people at risk for diabetes,
hyperthyroidism, lung cancer, heart disease, strokes, and other diseases.
- Assistant U.S. Surgeon General Marilyn Gaston
Dr. Marilyn Gaston is one of the world's
foremost experts on sickle cell disease Think Talent Services Confidential Source: Prochain Solution study, 2010 11

12. Watch this two video
Click
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bHw
AjoIvJw to watch “How the brain makes
creative connection”
Click
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v
JG698U2Mvo to watch “Selective
attention test video”
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