Book Review: Dave Crenshaw’s “The Myth of Multitasking”
October 10th, 2008 Oliver StarrCategories | Best Practices | Recommended Reading
I’ve just finished reading Dave Crenshaw’s “The Myth of Multitasking” and have to say that this little book was both a pleasure to read and offered some very practical advice in the form of a modern day fable. Basically the point of the book is to convey the idea that multitasking is a lie. As a GTD’er, you probably already know this and if you’ve been to a David Allen seminar you’ve heard him say it. Humans simply cannot do two things that both require concentration at the same time. We may think we can but in reality we’re “switch-tasking”, not multitasking.
The problem with this, as Dave explains in his book, is that each time we switch from one task to another we lose valuable time. This is because we have to reset of mental processes to deal with the changing task and we have to figure out just where we were before we get started again.
For those of you that think this rule doesn’t apply to you, I strongly suggest you take the self test that Dave explains in the story and provides for you to give yourself at the end of the book. The results are sure to suprise you and wake you up to the truth - that - as both Dave and David have said; multitasking is a lie.
If you want to test yourself now you don’t have to wait: Dave and his team have created a multitasking test you can take online right here.
BONUS: For the first three people that write to me and include their addresses, I have extra copies of this book to share. There’s a caveat though, after reading it you promise to come back here and post one new way this book taught you to eliminate interruptions so that you can focus on one task at a time - fair enough?
Editor’s Note: I finished writing this post about 3 am last night and I just realized that there was one thing I wanted to say that I neglected to write last evening and it is this: If you want to see another example of just how switch-tasking can impact performance there’s an ironic illustration of it contained within the book itself. In fact, this is an example that holds true for many, many books, especially those that are informational or educational in nature: the flow of the text and the way that we read is broken by having little sidebars with extra information or quotes from important people every few pages. In the case of “The Myth of Multitasking”there are 26 such sidebars in 106 pages or almost exactly one for every four pages. The degree to which this interrupts the natural reading flow - at least for me - was such that I recalled their being far more of these sidebars, more like one every other page. Does anyone else find these to be similarly disruptive?
It strikes me as particularly interesting that in a book about multitasking - and how it is impossible - this fact is so perfectly illustrated by the very content of the book. At least for me, having a non sequitur comment adjacent to the primary text of the book is distracting and dramatically slows my reading. Interestingly (at least for me) I also notice that while my recollection of material I read is considered to be unusually high I don’t seem to retain those sidebar quotes and other such content to nearly the same degree as I do the principal content. Perhaps this is due to the fact that while the content flows from one idea to the next with multiple associations and ideas built one on top of the other the sidebars may only be tangentially related to the main body material at best and therefore don’t have the same intellectual anchors to fix the ideas or the words that contain them firmly in one’s mind.
I have an address but do you want me to give it out here.
Thanks,
BArry
I’d love to write you but don’t see your email address
If you still have extra copies of the book, I’d like one and will come back to post.
I could certainly use the book.
If you ship to Europe, I would be glad to try it out.
tb
(mail me for shipping address)
PS: I was distracted only 3 times while writing this comment
I’m not sure I’m comfortable leaving my address in the comments, but I would enjoy a copy of that book. Do you want that information emailed to you?
Evie
I’ll take one! Happy to pass on any knowledge gained.
Gordon
Took the test! That was a laugh, and an eye opener… Thanks!
Gordon
I’m interested in seeing the book. How do we write you. I don’t find an e-mail address, only this discussion page for comments.
Thanks,
WCC
I’d love to take part in your offer, but couldn’t fine your email to send my shipping address to. I can be reached at the gmail account included for this comment. I’m a network admin looking for ways to be less interrupt driven, and I’ve been learning GTD since the pre-book era.
Hi, Folks,
Sorry, within about 3 minutes of posting this (at 3 AM no less) I already had the three copies I have spoken for. It seems that people are up late reading GTD times!
As for the email address that was a tiny test too. See I posted that address in the article I wrote yesterday asking for comments on how we could improve GTDtimes and it is also available via the “Contact Us” link below. Just checking to see if you’re paying attention!
I’ll email the author and see if he has a few more copies to hand out but in the event that they don’t it isn’t expensive and it’s worth buying,…
Editor
RE copies of the book:
Unfortunately,the giveaway on GTD has passed. However, the link Oliver provided is to the best price on the internet. Amazon is selling the book for $13.57 USD, which is about 33% off the cover price!
http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Multitasking-Doing-Gets-Nothing/dp/0470372257/ref=sr_11_1/002-2511549-5024838?ie=UTF8&qid=1223631708&sr=11-1
RE Sidebar quotes:
Yes, the decision to leave the quotes that way was deliberate. The publisher and I discussed it and decided it was a harmless little way to subtly illustrate the point of the book.
- Dave Crenshaw
GTD has those sidebar inserts, too.
The book is a quick read, and the tests are pretty clever. I didn’t realize how much I was frivolously switching between tasks and losing time. I now close programs (including e-mail) I am not actively using. No more checking e-mail while waiting for a document to open, no more looking at web-sites (even GTD times) while answering a phone call. I still get e-mail and look at web-sites, but when, and for as long as I decide in advance.
publishers love those things the same way that the bizdev guys love adding yet another Flash widget to the website. doesn’t need to have fun little treats every 30 seconds? distracting? from what? oh, the CONTENT, well, la di da…
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Sidebars are annoying. I have the habit of reading the subheadings of a chapter, then going back to read all its sidebars. THEN I read the chapter from beginning to end. This makes the teasers a little less distracting.
I certainly appreciated receiving a copy of the book and would have finished reading sooner if I had been practicing some of the points that Mr. Crenshaw highlights. Although the book is short, the author makes quite a few suggestions that fit well within the framework of GTD. I found the information regarding switchtasking to be the most relevant as well as the tips on controlling active vs. passive switches. The book has helped me look at my own work habits and I hope to have better control over my work boundaries and time budget. At minimum, I’ll be setting up “shop hours” and getting a “will return” clock!