What's actually going on?
Serial Tasking.
According to this theory, "Rather than engaging in simultaneous tasks, you are in fact shifting from one task to another in rapid succession," which is known as serial tasking (Taylor). Another name for this is rapid shift tasking, a name telling of what's actually happening: "we may think we're doing several things at once--reading an email, answering the phone and editing a document--but we're actually doing one thing at a time, and simply moving between tasks repeatedly," writes Robert Shmerling. "The evidence suggests that the idea that there are good and bad multitaskers is a myth. In fact, the entire concept of multitasking may be a myth; we are just serially tasking as well as we can." |
Metatasking.
One alternate explanation of what could be happening--or, rather, what we could work to make happening--when we are multitasking is the theory of metatasking. Devin Zimmerman defines metatasking as "focused multitasking [which] is a process that involves undertaking any number of tasks that ultimately accomplish one primary objective." For example, you are metatasking when you are looking up sources for a project, taking notes on those sources, organizing the notes into an outline, and online chatting with classmates about the assignment all at the same time. Metatasking is much less harmful than serial tasking, but it still harms one's productivity in significant ways. "[W]ITHOUT GUIDANCE,THIS KIND OF MULTITASKING CAN RESULT IN DISTRACTION AND POOR ATTENTION TO ANY ONE TASK. THE KEY IS TO STEP UP AND OFFER GUIDANCE, TO EXPLAIN CLEARLY WHAT THE CENTRAL TASK IS AND HOW EACH PIECE CONTRIBUTES TO ACCOMPLISHING THAT CENTRAL TASK."
--Devin Zimmerman, "Metatasking vs. Multitasking" |