Multitasking – Friend or Foe?

It depends on what the interruption is. If it's an easily answered request, I either attend to it or tell them, "I'll get back to you later". If my chain of thought hasn't been broken, I can return to the task at hand without much loss of momentum. If it is a long complicated interruption, that may require immediate attention, it can take me some time to get back to where I left off. My cell phone is my only source of interruption. E-mail's when I get around to it. Any time I'm working a project that requires me to attend with the utmost attention, I shut off the phone and that includes dinner time.

I'm with Ronseto on this one. If you don't want to be disturbed, shut off the communication devices. Sometimes, I even have to leave the office. Working in cube-ville, there is still the potential for someone to interrupt, or else there are loud conversations nearby.

While interruptions are disrupting, I also find that sometimes I need to disengage from the problem and come back to it later. Some issues are like a good stew: they have to sit and bubble for a while before you can serve them.

Oh my... here goes...

I've been annoyed by the the inability of younger people to handle interruptions. They happen. It's part of life. Maybe I'm off base here, but I suspect this article (and post noticing it) was written by someone "younger" than myself. How many times have posters here called a "business" only to go through a obstacle course of recorded menus and finally wait on hold to speak to a real person. Then, more often than not, the person is reading a cookbook help manual telling them what to do depending on what a customer says -- keywords. And if you're unlucky enough, there will be some annoying music while you're on hold (as well as commercials for company products). THIS is frustrating... a lack of human contact. This is germane to the issue at hand.

My career (going on 38 years now) has always required multitasking. Today's business world allows much more freedom for workers to attend to "interruptions" like phone calls, emails, etc. Now there is email, voicemail, texting and the aforementioned robotic customer service "employees" to minimize human interaction. All in the name of efficiency. And how many times after giving all your information to a voice recognition system are you then asked for all that same information again when (if) you finally do get to a human being.

Interruptions? Sure. I've had several people lined up at my desk at times in past years in different jobs. And it felt harried as hell. But you know what? The people standing there knew they would get some kind of action on their problem in a couple of minutes. They at least had the attention of someone who could help or point them to help. I just wish today's technology didn't give me the feeling that my problem or question will get solved when someone else is good and ready. To boot, many companies are understaffed for the call load they get. THIS is real frustration -- not interruptions. Too many people have gotten to where they can't handle "interruptions" and want to be able to delay and arrange handling them to suit their whims or emotional state. If you've felt the frustration I have mentioned about lack of human contact when you really need it to solve a problem, then I'm just saying keep that frustration in mind when you get a so-called "interruption" -- be it email, voicemail, etc. Someone on the other end is probably feeling the frustration we all experience when we urgently want to speak to someone, only to get menus and recordings. And as mentioned. Turn them off it you are that sensitive to it. O.K. I'm done ranting.

the only time i cannot multi task is when i have an unusual electronic problem on say a fork lift truck.

my system is i sit down and work my way round the wiring problem holding as much info in my head as to how the system should work and then try to work out why its not working.

i use this method on things that dont have very good workshop manuals ie like Atlet fork lift truck Manuals they dont make any sense at all, ( lost in swedish to english translation )

thats their excuse.

during this holding all the info in my head process i find it difficult to do anything else

I had a shrink tell me once that the brain does NOT operate in parallel! It is best to work on 2 or 3 tasks and achieve you goal to finish a task. Distractions are easy to block out for an Engineer. I use Pink noise which blocks out outside noise. I ignore my phone and let it take messages usually they are dumb ass solicitors. Email I get a flash alert on my computer and it is highly filtered for spam. I turn off Windows sound scheme which is annoying. There are many ways to block out noise and it takes noise like Pink Noise, Rain, Ocean, and others in order to mask unwanted noise.

If you want to block out emails or interruption from coworkers just ignore the email until you are done or taking a break. A coworker will understand if you politely tell him I will get back to you in and hour after you have finished your task and read your emails. This works and you must be stern about it. If you are in a cubicle this sucks so I used to go to the company library to study. On occasion if I had to right Patent related material I would ask my boss if I could take a few days off and work at home and it worked. Hope this helps.