Quotes & Sayings About Multitasking

Juggling is an illusion ... In reality, the balls are being independently caught and thrown in rapid succession ... It is actually task switching. — Gary Keller

The relative ease of most driving lures us into thinking we can get away with doing other things. Indeed, those other things, like listening to the radio, can help when driving itself is threatening to cause fatigue. But we buy into the myth of multitasking with little actual knowledge of how much we can really add in or, as with the television news, how much we are missing. As the inner life of the driver begins to come into focus, it is becoming clear not only that distraction is the single biggest problem on the road but that we have little concept of just how distracted we are. — Tom Vanderbilt

Extroverts tend to tackle assignments quickly. They make fast (sometimes rash) decisions, and are comfortable multitasking and risk-taking. They enjoy "the thrill of the chase" for rewards like money and status. Introverts often work more slowly and deliberately. They like to focus on one task at a time and can have mighty powers of concentration. They're relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame. — Susan Cain

Multitasking Makes You Stupid. Doing more than one thing at a time makes you slower and worse at both tasks. Don't do it. If you think this doesn't apply to you, you're wrong - it does. — Jeff Sutherland

Eliminate multitasking to learn faster and think better. — Jill Konrath

Studies consistently show that the better people think they are at multitasking, the worse they actually are and I am GREAT at it. — John Green

There are certain things you learn to do as a parent - using every single part of your body because you're multitasking all the time. You're holding the baby and you're closing the door with your left foot. — Amy Ryan

Fucking two things up at the same time isn't multitasking — Dick Masterson

Women are smarter by basic instinct and by what we have to do to multitask at home and at work. My mother did that 50 years ago, but it wasn't called multitasking or stress back then. She had a job, two kids and the meals to make with no cook or maid. My father would come home every day and expect lunch. He was a nice guy, but he was clueless! — Mireille Guiliano

I like "multi-" ... multiplicity, multicultural, multiplication etc. Any contribution to diversification and value augmentation is achievement. — Rossana Condoleo

Multitasking? I can't even do two things at once. I can't even do one thing at once. — Helena Bonham Carter

Like most early enthusiasts, I always thought the way the Internet encouraged multitasking made users less vulnerable to manipulation, while simultaneously exploiting even more of our brain's capacity than before. Apparently not. — Douglas Rushkoff

We miss extra bits of knowledge that can add value to our lives. We sort of lack empathy because we're multitasking all the time. — Kim Stolz

One thing I am learning is to slow down. Multitasking is great, but I when try to do everything at warp speed I just end up with typos and stress. — Ayana Mathis

I'm a technophobe. I can't crack the iPhone, and the extent of my multitasking is being able to talk while I make a drink. — Len Goodman

Instead of thinking about addiction, it makes sense to confront this reality: We are faced with technologies to which we are extremely vulnerable and we don't always respect that fact. The path forward is to learn more about our vulnerabilities. Then, we can design technology and the environments in which we use them with these insights in mind. For example, since we know that multitasking is seductive but not helpful to learning, it's up to us to promote unitasking. — Sherry Turkle

Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The trend might be coming from the acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next-election perspective of democracies, or the distractions of personal multitasking. All are on the increase. Some sort of balancing corrective to the short-sightedness is needed - some mechanism or myth that encourages the long view and the taking of long-term responsibility, where "the long term" is measured at least in centuries. — Stewart Brand

The more I took note of how my body and brain clicked along through the day, the more I realized that I spent a considerable amount of time banging around with a brain full of chatter; a rush of things to do, bills to pay, telephone calls, text messages, e-mails, worrying about my job or my looks, my boobs or my ass; I rushed from thing to thing, multitasking, triple-timing, hoping to cover all the bases, avoiding anything that might disrupt the schedule or routine. At times, I was so caught up in the tempo and pattern, the predictable tap, tap, tap of each day, that there was no time to notice the neighbors had moved out, the wind was sneaking in from the north, the sun was shifting on its axis, and tonight the moon would look like the milky residue floating inside an enormous cereal bowl. I wondered when I had become a person who noticed so little. — Dee Williams

The worst possible thing you can do when you're down in the dumps, tweaking, vaporous with victimized self-righteousness, or bored, is to take a walk with dying friends. They will ruin everything for you. First of all, friends like this may not even think of themselves as dying, although they clearly are, according to recent scans and gentle doctors' reports. But no, they see themselves as fully alive. They are living and doing as much as they can, as well as they can, for as long as they can. They ruin your multitasking high, the bath of agitation, rumination, and judgment you wallow in, without the decency to come out and just say anything. They bust you by being grateful for the day, while you are obsessed with how thin your lashes have become and how wide your bottom. — Anne Lamott

Multitasking is a lie — Gary Keller

Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time. — Gary Keller

I'm quite good at multitasking, but I have to do things immediately. — Heidi Klum

You will leave now," she said softly, " or I will drag you out of here by your hair."
The man had breath like a day-old tuna sandwich. "I hate dykes. You always think you're tougher than you really
"
Xhex grabbed the man's wrist, turned him in a little circle, and cranked him arm up to the middle of his back. Then she clipped her leg around his ankles and shoved him off balance. He landed like a side of beef, the wind getting knocked out of him on a curse, his body plowing into the short-napped carpet. In a quick move, she bent down, buried one hand in his gelled-up hair, and locked the other on the collar of his suit jacket. As she draggep him face-first to the side exit, she was multitasking : creating a scene, commiting both an assault and a battery, and running the risk of a brawl if his buddies in the Hall of Fucktards got involved. But you had to put on a show every once in a while. To keep the peace, you had to get your hands dirty every once in a while. — J.R. Ward

The simple act of being interrupted is one of the biggest barriers to productivity ... What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50 percent. — Susan Cain

A person who is interrupted while performing a task takes 50% more time to complete it and make 50% more errors. — David Brooks

Multitasking divides your attention and leads to confusion and weakened focus. — Deepak Chopra

In the modern desktop environment, with multitasking and alerts and constant activity, there are always more distractions. When you're at a computer, your hands are always on the controls. — Marco Arment

I told you to keep him safe, not cuddle."
Alucard spread his hands behind him on the sheets. "I'm more than capable of multitasking — V.E Schwab

Multitasking is the enemy of a focused attentional system. Increasingly, we demand that our attentional system try to focus on several things at once, something that it was not evolved to do. — Daniel J. Levitin

Over time, stress hormones from multitasking can damage memory centers in the brain. Focus on one task at a time for better efficiency and memory. — Peter Lawrence

As for time, it is forever shrinking. Oppressed by multitasking and managerial efficiency, we live under a perpetual time pressure. The disease of this millennium will be called chronophobia or speedomania, and its treatment will be embarrassingly old-fashioned. Contemporary nostalgia is not so much about the past as about vanishing the present. — Svetlana Boym

People say pot-smokers are lazy. I disagree; I'm a multitasking pot-smoker: just the other day I was walking down the street, I was putting eyedrops in my eyes, I was talking on my cell phone, and I was getting hit by a car. — Doug Benson

A strategy is multi-dimensional planning, multi-team collaboration, and multitasking action. — Pearl Zhu

Many people feel they must multi-task because everybody else is multitasking, but this is partly because they are all interrupting each other so much. — Marilyn Vos Savant

It's important to be aware of how multitasking can stimulate us into mindlessness, giving the illusion of productivity while stealing our focus and harming performance. "When you are walking, walk. When you are sitting, sit," is ancient wisdom. — Sharon Salzberg

Audio is the only medium you can consume while you're multitasking. — Alex Blumberg

I like to think of murder-suicide as extreme multitasking. — Dana Gould

Some days I don't have time for a full workout, but I do have to dry my hair, right? So rather than just stand there blow-drying, I do several kinds of leg squats at the same time. I believe in multitasking. — Christie Brinkley

Consider that the simplest social interactions between two people requires performing an astonishing array of tasks: interpreting what the other person is saying; reading body language and facial expressions; smoothly taking turns talking and listening; responding to what the other person said; assessing whether you're being understood; determining whether you're well received, and, if not, figuring out how to improve or remove yourself from the situation. Think of what it takes to juggle all this at once! And that's just a one-to-one conversation. Now imagine the multitasking required in a group setting like a dinner party.
(p237) — Susan Cain

We can't go from zero to sixty in a day or even a week when it comes to shifting our food-habit gears. We have to take baby steps, starting with an increasing awareness of our habits and a willingness to chip away at the ones that aren't doing us any good. Slowly, with time and commitment, we move away from the rat-race, multitasking mentality to a place where we want to give our meals and ourselves the time and attention we deserve. — Mary DeTurris Poust

Concentration Attention Multitasking Boredom Procrastination — Sharon Salzberg

The sooner we associate long hours and multitasking with incompetence and carelessness the better. The next time you hear boasts of executives pulling an all-nighter or holding conference calls in their cars, be sure to offer your condolences; it's grim being stuck in sweatshops run by managers too ignorant to understand productivity and risk. Working people like this is as smart as running your factory without maintenance. In manufacturing and engineering businesses, everyone learns that the top priority is asset integrity: protecting the machinery on which the business depends. In knowledge-based economies, that machinery is the mind. — Margaret Heffernan

If someone around you is multitasking, you pick up distraction like second-hand smoke. — Clay Shirky

I'm a person of whim, and easily distracted. I don't like multitasking. When I'm doing one thing, I like to do just that thing. — Margaret Atwood

I'm not good at multitasking. — Patrick Chan

In this media-drenched, multitasking, always-on age, many of us have forgotten how to unplug and immerse ourselves completely in the moment. We have forgotten how to slow down. Not surprisingly, this fast-forward culture is taking a toll on everything from our diet and health to our work and the environment. — Carl Honore

Those who consistently attempt multitasking find it harder to ignore irrelevant information and take longer moving between tasks - in other words, for all their frantic activity, they're actually wasting time. And — Margaret Heffernan

Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth. — John Medina

Multitasking is actually a hindrance to productivity. Focus on one thing and get it done. — Del Suggs

Multilevel multitasking multiplied multiple times is Event Management. — Rehan Waris

I have the attention span of a mosquito from multitasking and all the things that have affected my poor little brain. — Ian Somerhalder

Focus on one thing at a time whenever possible. You might think of an organized person as juggling many things at once, but actually it's been proven more efficient to handle things one at a time. A recent Wall Street Journal article discussed how managing two important mental tasks at once reduces the brainpower available for either task. So, while people think they are saving time by multitasking, they are actually doing both tasks ineffectively. — Lorie Marrero

Wilson showed that the cognitive losses from multitasking are even greater than the cognitive losses from pot smoking. — Daniel J. Levitin

My biggest thing is, I'm learning what it's like to carry myself in a personal way and also a professional way: how I can be a leader and do multitasking. — Genevieve Padalecki

Being constantly the hub of a network of potential interruptions provides the excitement and importance of crisis management. As well as the false sense of efficiency in multitasking, there is the false sense of urgency in multi-interrupt processing. — Michael Foley

Most of the work on multitasking suggests that it generally makes you less efficient, not more. — James Surowiecki

This is really good," Donovan Caine said, attacking his third strawberry pancake. "You sound surprised," I said. He shrugged. "I just didn't think an assassin would be able to cook like this." "Well, I do get lots of practice with knives. You could say I'm multitasking." The detective froze, his fork halfway to his mouth. "I'm kidding. I enjoy cooking. It relaxes me. — Jennifer Estep

I did that thing where you scratch your eyebrow and flip someone off at the same time. I'm good at multitasking like that. — Darynda Jones

marriage is an ultimate sport in emotional multitasking. I'm never only mad at Greg. I'm mad and madly in love; angry and concerned for his wellbeing; he frustrates and delights me in the same second. We were arguing, but we were still a team. — Penny Reid

For kids, multitasking electronically is common. But they are totally focused. You can tell a good story, and they listen. — Patrick Carman

Multitasking is a part of my everyday life. — Monica Denise Brown

The brain cannot multitask...The brain naturally focuses on concepts sequentially, one at a time...This attentional ability is, to put it bluntly, not capable of multitasking. — John Medina

It is pure mythology that women cannot perform as well as men in science, engineering and mathematics. In my experience, the opposite is true: Women are often more adept and patient at untangling complex problems, multitasking, seeing the possibilities in new solutions and winning team support for collaborative action. — Weili Dai

Multitasking is the drive to be more than we are, to control more than we do, to extend our power and our effectiveness. Such practice yields a divided self, with full attention given to nothing. — Walter Brueggemann

Multitasking makes you stupid - dumber than getting stoned. — Brigid Schulte

I'm going to continue working as a model. I want to do it all! And I think it's possible to keep working while you go to school. Christy Turlington did it. Natalie Portman did it. Emma Watson just did it! And those are just women in the public eye, but plenty of others do it, too. You know, women around the world are great at multitasking. We do it well. — Karlie Kloss

We've become such a multitasking society that just paying attention to the road doesn't seem to be that important anymore. I have to remind my kids all the time that that's what you're supposed to be doing in the car. — Andie MacDowell

She was the quintessential twenty-first-century woman: She could build a high-rise in a Chanel suit and Jimmy Choos, give lessons in multitasking, and freeze the heart of the coldest competitor with a single unblinking gaze over the rim of her ebony-framed reading glasses. But that persona was like a bodysuit that she pulled on at eight in the morning and peeled out of at five in the afternoon. — Donna Ball

Chinese cooking is noisy - a multitasking activity that requires constant vigilance. There is no downtime. — Jennifer Lee

If you ever want to understand multitasking in prose, James Joyce is your man. — Frank Delaney

I'M PRETTY GOOD at multitasking, so I figured I could flee in terror and argue at the same time. — Rick Riordan

I think all of us are multitasking a little more today than we used to or than we would like to. And I think that the issue of work-life balance is a critical issue for every company around the world. — Irene Rosenfeld

For many years, when I was starring on 'Touched by an Angel,' I produced on a number of television movies for CBS. I have always enjoyed the aspect of bringing something together and multitasking in that way. — Roma Downey

When we think we're multitasking," says Gentile, "we're actually multiswitching. That is what the brain is very good at doing - quickly diverting its attention from one place to the next. We think we're being productive because we are, indeed, being busy. But in reality we're simply giving ourselves extra work." A — Michael Harris

Multitasking means that you are not able to make full, rich connections in your thinking, because the part of your brain that helps make connections is constantly being pulled away before neural connections can be firmed up. — Barbara Oakley

Start with the important task first: Start the most important task first, as this will make you relaxed and avoid anxiety to jump into multitasking. — Dorothy Enderson

I've learnt that, sometimes, how others see you is not the same as how you see yourself. I've learnt about how you can be multitasking - and sometimes other people see that you're multitasking. And that's not very nice for them. — David Miliband

You can do two things at once, but you can't focus effectively on two things at once. — Gary Keller

Jordan Grafman, head of the cognitive neuroscience unit at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, explains that the constant shifting of our attention when we're online may make our brains more nimble when it comes to multitasking, but improving our ability to multitask actually hampers our ability to think deeply and creatively. — Nicholas Carr

My first operating system project was to build a real-time system called RSX-11M that ran on Digital's PDP-11 16-bit series of minicomputers ... a multitasking operating system that would run in 32 KB of memory with a hierarchical file system, application swapping, real-time scheduling, and a set of development utilities. The operating system and utilities were to run on the entire line of PDP-11 platforms, from the very small systems up through the PDP-11/70 which had memory-mapping hardware and supported up to 4 MB of memory. — Dave Cutler

The brain cannot multitask. Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth. The brain naturally focuses on concepts sequentially, one at a time ... To put it bluntly, research shows that we can't multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing information-rich inputs simultaneously ... Studies show that a person who is interrupted takes 50 percent longer to accomplish a task. Not only that, he or she makes up to 50 percent more errors. — John Medina

Then there are the metabolic costs of switching itself that I wrote about earlier. Asking the brain to shift attention from one activity to another causes the prefrontal cortex and striatum to burn up oxygenated glucose, the same fuel they need to stay on task. And the kind of rapid, continual shifting we do with multitasking causes the brain to burn through fuel so quickly that we feel exhausted and disoriented after even a short time. We've literally depleted the nutrients in our brain. This leads to compromises in both cognitive and physical performance. Among other things, repeated task switching leads to anxiety, which raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the brain, which in turn can lead to aggressive and impulsive behaviors. By contrast, staying on task is controlled by the anterior cingulate and the striatum, and once we engage the central executive mode, staying in that state uses less energy than multitasking and actually reduces the brain's need for glucose. — Daniel J. Levitin

Multi-tasking is great in the kitchen when you are trying to time the chicken to be ready at the same time as the potatoes. But do not assume it is a great way to manage a workday. — Joanne Tombrakos

Keeping it all together as a modern woman means multitasking, especially when you work. I think you always need to try your best, but at the same time you can only do what you can do, and you don't need to beat yourself up about it. I'm not white-picket-fence perfect. — Heidi Klum

Another study, of 38,000 knowledge workers across different sectors, found that the simple act of being interrupted is one of the biggest barriers to productivity. Even multitasking, that prized feat of modern-day office warriors, turns out to be a myth. — Susan Cain

The irony of multitasking is that it's exhausting: when you're doing two or three things simultaneously, you use more energy than the sum of energy required to do each task independently. You're also cheating yourself because your're not doing anything excellently. You're compromising your virtuosity. In the words of T. S. Elliot, you're 'distracted from distractions by distractions'. — Twyla Tharp

It is generally recognized that women are better than men at languages, personal relations and multitasking, but less good at map-reading and spatial awareness. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that women might be less good at mathematics and physics. It is not politically correct to say such things ... But it cannot be denied that there are differences between men and women. Of course, these are differences between the averages only. There are wide variations about the mean. — Stephen Hawking

Multitasking doesn't save time - it wastes time. — Gary Keller

Do three things well, not ten things badly. — David Segrove

She was good at multitasking, and there was really only one way to keep Ian on task or he would go off on one of his arctic, curse-filled rants that tended to make everyone around him dive for cover. "Jesse Murdoch shot me." Ian grunted a little, his hips bucking slightly. "I knew there was a reason I liked the kid." She rolled her eyes. "Nice. — Lexi Blake

It's neuroscience that would say that our capacity to multitask is virtually nonexistent. Multitasking is a computer-derived term. We have one processor. We can't do it. — Dan Harris

My mother was a pediatrician, and she kept busy hours. I learned from her you could pack a lot into the day. Every minute had to count, and multitasking was a given. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

When we think we're multitasking we're actually multiswitching. That is what the brain is very good at doing - quickly diverting its attention from one place to the next. We think we're being productive. We are, indeed, being busy. But in reality we're simply giving ourselves extra work. — Michael Harris

You'd think people would realize they're bad at multitasking and would quit. But a cognitive illusion sets in, fueled in part by a dopamine-adrenaline feedback loop, in which multitaskers think they are doing great. — Daniel J. Levitin

Varium et mutabile! murmurs the man sagely - "A woman's privilege is to change her mind!" If the nature of his industry were such that he had to change his mind from cooking to cleaning, from cleaning to sewing, from sewing to nursing, from nursing to teaching, and so, backward, forward, crosswise and over again, from morning to night - he too would become adept in the lightning-change act. The man adopts one business and follows it. He develops special ability, on long lines, in connection with wide interests - and so grows broader and steadier. The distinction is there, but it is not a distinction of sex. This is why the man forgets to mail the letter. He is used to one consecutive train of thought and action. She, used to a varying zigzag horde of little things, can readily accommodate a few more. — Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Wilson's way of keeping in mind the dual aspects of the Furby's nature seems to me a philosophical version of multitasking, so central to our twentieth-century attentional ecology. His attitude is pragmatic. If something that seems to have a self is before him, he deals with the aspect of self he finds most relevant to the context. — Sherry Turkle

The secret to multitasking is that it isn't actually multitasking. It's just extreme focus and organization. — Joss Whedon

I do think to some extent multitasking is a way of fooling ourselves that we're being exceptionally efficient. — James Surowiecki

There's no such thing as multitasking. — Jim Loehr

Multi-tasking is NOT an option — Mani S. Sivasubramanian