For those who do too much

In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: 8220;There is time enough...

In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: 8220;There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.8221; To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one8217;s time; it was a mark of intelligence.

In modern times, hurry, bustle, and agitation have become a regular way of life for many people 8212; so much so that we have embraced a word to describe our efforts to respond to the many pressing demands on our time: multitasking8230; In the late 8217;90s and early 2000s, one sensed a kind of exuberance about the possibilities of multitasking. Advertisements for new electronic gadgets celebrated the notion of using technology to accomplish several things at once. The word multitasking began appearing in the 8220;skills8221; sections of reacute;sumeacute;s8230; An article in the New York Times Magazine in 2001 offered advice on 8220;How to Multitask8221; with suggestions about giving your brain8217;s 8220;multitasking hot spot8221; an appropriate workout.

But more recently, challenges to the ethos of multitasking have begun to emerge. Numerous studies have shown the sometimes-fatal danger of using cell phones and other electronic devices while driving, for example8230; In the business world, where concerns about time-management are perennial, warnings about workplace distractions spawned by a multitasking culture are on the rise. In 2005, the BBC reported on a research study that found, 8220;Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.8221; The psychologist who led the study called this new 8220;infomania8221; a serious threat to workplace productivity8230;

Multitasking might also be taking a toll on the economy. One study by researchers at the University of California at Irvine monitored interruptions among office workers; they found that workers took an average of 25 minutes to recover from interruptions such as phone calls or answering e-mail and return to their original task. Discussing multitasking, Jonathan B. Spira, an analyst at the business research firm Basex, estimated that extreme multitasking-information overload costs the US economy 650 billion a year in lost productivity.

Excerpted from an article by Christine Rosen in 8216;The New Atlantis8217;