The Pitfalls of Multitasking in Business and Society This fast paced era is characterized by a constant influx of information in the form of Email, Facebook, Twitter Alerts, etc. Our social and professional lives have become so demanding that sometimes multitasking seems like the only solution to the multitude of problems and complications that characterize our lives. However, according to science, this is merely a deception because multitasking does not help us accomplish anything out of the ordinary. I was a so called ...
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The Pitfalls of Multitasking in Business and Society This fast paced era is characterized by a constant influx of information in the form of Email, Facebook, Twitter Alerts, etc. Our social and professional lives have become so demanding that sometimes multitasking seems like the only solution to the multitude of problems and complications that characterize our lives. However, according to science, this is merely a deception because multitasking does not help us accomplish anything out of the ordinary. I was a so called "multitasker" at one time, until one day I discovered that multitasking really did not exist. I personally found that it was conjured up by industrial gurus and consultants in an effort to increase productivity using less people. Organizations thought it would be better to have one person do several tasks simultaneously. This philosophy led to "downsizing", which was in reality the sacking of several employees, decreased budgets and overall more responsibilities. It worked fairly well for a one-person business and very small business, but could not succeed in major companies and organizations where profit margins increased but productivity and quality decreased. People that were left on the job, after the huge downsizing, simply did have more work to do, thus they had to start what became popularly known as, multitasking . My personal definition of this word is: "the Perception of doing more than two things in one single instance of time." This happened all across the industrial board and quality has definitively suffered. Its overall effects of diminishing quality are yet to surface, but they will! Why You Should Stop According to different scientific studies, we do not possess the ability to carry out different tasks that require a conscious effort on our part. If we engage in two or more conscious activities at the same time then the accuracy and quality of our work will be affected. Therefore, due to our inherent limitations, it is imperative for employers and managers to realize that the multitasking culture that they support is in fact unhealthy for them and the employees, as well as the company or organization. It is important to associate realistic expectations with a person's ability to multi task. This does not mean that we should not engage in multitasking at all; it means that we should be wise about the tasks that we decide to pair. If we are working on a demanding task then we should pair it with a task that does not involve much use of our mental faculties (the routine tasks). However, before going any further and accepting the relevance of multitasking, it is crucial to ask ourselves if multitasking is really the solution to our problems. Benefits of this Book The idea behind this book is not to dismiss the fundamentals of multitasking but to adopt certain strategies to do several tasks, focusing and concentrating on each one separately for the perfect execution of each. If you are spending time worrying and getting stressed out about too many "to-dos" on your list NOT getting done, you should add The Pitfalls of Multitasking in Business and Society" to your reference library now. It is guaranteed to reduce your stress to a comfortable level.
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