WOW.
I always knew that there were a large amount of tasks that could not be done simultaneously, but this chapter really drove it home. Ironically, I was trying to watch TV and read this chapter at the same time; it didn't work.
The idea behind this chapter is really straight forward and simple. Keep your tasks separate. While I have never been one to drive and text, this chapter leads me to believe that even driving and talking on the phone is a bad idea. It's also leading me to think about the major items being redesigned daily. We must ensure that, despite the desire for more devices, we are able to use these devices without placing the users, or others, in harms way.
I agree that there is a common misconception about the ability to multitask, but find it highly interesting that women apparently succeed at recovering faster than men. As people, we need to realize the extent of our capabilities. I believe that in most cases, a quick transition between items is easy to recover from, but jumping to an action that takes a long time to recover from is much more common.
We usually take the time to respond to an email when we notice that there is a new one in our inbox, but since we've stopped anyway, we will respond to all the emails in our inbox. But email isn't the only action that we take in this manner: texting, watching TV, reading books, etc.
No longer will I allow myself to be as distracted by everyday things. I have learned that multi-tasking doesn't exist and therefore I will be choosing to remove distractions from my view when working. Hopefully, everyone else starts thinking the same way.
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