Source: Big Think
Dan Harris: Think You’re a Good Multitasker? Stop Lying
November 19, 2015 6:00pm by Barry Ritholtz
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Its like speed reading a nice idea with no practical implementation; if you read twice as fast you miss half the information.
Do two tasks at the same time and both will be done half assed.
This is not news for anyone who is or has been a software developer, and who has worked in an environment where they have a office with a door they can shut vs. working as a prairie dog in a cube farm.
Being able to shut a door and pull the blinds when you’re thinking about a complicated problem is a huge productivity boost. I cannot begin to enumerate the number of times I’d be deeply in thought on a complicated problem and lose my train of thought because someone came by to ask me some mundane question or ask me to come into some meeting filled with management and marketing, talking about things they knew nothing about.
This is also the reason why most software developers often see their productivity go down when they have a girlfriend or a wife. There are times when you simply need huge blocks of time to just think – perhaps for a day or more at a time.