Summary for 3 Articles
1. The science of multitasking, and why you should doodle in class:
The article explained that multitasking is technically impossible as our attention can only focus on one thing or the other, which came as a surprise for me. This is because multitasking is regarded as doing multiple things at once, but we can only do one task at a time. Although there are disadvantages of switching one task to another such as the loss in productivity, it can help people to be alert in certain situations. One example in this article is doodling in a boring class.
2. Think you’re great at multitasking? Think again:
This article focuses more on statistics and experiments on people who usually multitask. It is quite shocking to learn that over 20% of highway accidents are caused by drivers being distracted. In addition, most participants who were asked to rate their multitasking skills believed to be above-average. In reality, they’re incapable of doing so. (Question: why did they expected themselves to be above-average?)
3. Is Your Team Multitasking to Survive Your Videoconference Meetings?
This short article starts by saying that it is the mangers’ fault that employees are unfocused during online meetings and (or) presentations. I’ve never thought that they are to blame since I previously believed that workers are the problem. However, it states that doing additional work declines the performance of staff. A question arose when during reading: why the manager? Fortunately, it was answered by saying that these issues include poor meeting design, etc.