MULTI-TASKING

People have thought they were complimenting me when they would remark about my ability to multi-task. In my work, it was usually a necessity but I always knew better than to think it was effective. I knew that I was sacrificing the focus of one task for another; the compliment should have been that I was able to keep focus on the main object. I would often say that when I gave a task "a lick and a promise" (to quote my mother) and then I would have to rush back to give it the attention it deserved in the first place. (CLICK HERE to see article)

When interviewing people, if the candidates bragged about their multi-tasking ability, it was definitely NOT a selling-point to me!

Read the article from NPR HERE.

From THE WISE GEEK:

People who think they're good at multitasking usually are the worst at it, research shows.

The ability to multitask effectively might vary depending on personality type and the ability to focus. Research has found that people who test high for personality traits such as impulsiveness and risk-taking are often the least effective at multitasking, but they also are the most likely to multitask and to think they are good at it. Researchers believe this might be because people who have impulsive personalities are easily distracted and unable to focus on one task at a time, leading them to multitask. People who are able to focus on the task at hand have been found to be the most effective at multitasking, which researchers concluded was because those people were not multitasking out of distraction but rather with the intent to be more productive.