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????親愛的安妮： ????自從兩三年前，我所在的部門因裁員而縮水后，我在公司內部就贏得了“千手觀音”的雅號，常常同時處理五六個項目，像超人一樣飛天遁地。這樣的工作方式不僅令人筋疲力盡，而且削弱了我的工作能力。每件事耗費的時間都比我集中火力、逐個擊破時要長出很多。 ????因此，我決定在新的一年里戒除這種習慣，至少要減少這種情況的發(fā)生。問題在于我的老板，他不停地派給我更多工作，用他的話說，就是讓我“左右開弓”，而其實我已經比木料場的啄木鳥還要忙了。您或者您的讀者能否給點建議，幫我說服他，一次只處理一件事情對我們都會更好嗎？ ????——疲憊不堪的人 ????親愛的疲憊不堪的人： ????大量學術研究已經無可置疑地證明，每次將注意力轉向別處時，人的大腦都需要時間來重新調整集中。例如，2009年斯坦福大學（Stanford）的一個著名實驗發(fā)現，一心多用的人“更容易受到無關環(huán)境刺激的干擾”，也就是說，更容易分心，處理手頭事務的效率更低。 ????因此，你覺得同時做幾件事情令自己效率低下，這種感覺沒錯。但是，如果學術研究對你的老板不起作用，那么實現咨詢公司（Realization）的首席執(zhí)行官桑杰夫?古普塔建議用一個快速的小游戲的來證明這一點。 ????具體的做法如下：準備一只秒表，或者任何有秒針的手表也行。按下秒表，看看你（或老板）寫下“multitask 123456”（英文單詞multitask及阿拉伯數字123456——譯注）需要多長時間。然后，再按秒表，看看交替寫下“m1u2l3t4i5t6a7s8k9”需要多少時間。 ????游戲很簡單吧？我寫下“multitask 123456789”用了9.5秒；而將文字和數字之間輪換著寫，花了我24秒，是前者兩倍多的時間。 ????好吧，或許只是我自己同時處理多任務的能力很差，但是，古普塔表示，即便是多任務處理能手（例如你，也許），在這個游戲的兩個結果上，也會出現很大的不同。“結果可能與人們的直覺相反，但是如果讓兩名員工完成同一個任務，其中集中注意力處理這個任務的員工，總是會比同時處理多個任務的員工完成得更快，錯誤更少，”古普塔說。 ????“許多人在簡歷和求職面試中夸耀自己的多任務處理能力，”他補充說道?！暗菍嶋H上，它無異于告訴人們，‘我做事情沒有別人快，沒有別人好?！?/p> |
????Dear Annie: Since my department was shrunk by layoffs a couple of years ago, I have gotten an in-house reputation as a champion multitasker, able to handle half a dozen projects at one time (and leap tall buildings in a single bound). Working this way is not only exhausting, but I think it makes me less competent. Everything takes much longer than it would if I could just focus on one task at a time. ????So I made a New Year's resolution to cut it out, or at least do less multitasking. The problem is my boss, who is constantly piling more stuff on me to do "with my left hand," as he puts it, when I'm already busier than a woodpecker in a lumberyard. Can you or your readers suggest any way to convince him that we'd all be better off tackling one thing at a time? — Frazzled ????Dear Frazzled: A heap of academic research has demonstrated conclusively that the human brain needs time to refocus every time we turn our attention in a different direction. A famous experiment at Stanford in 2009, for instance, found that multitaskers are "more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli" -- that is, more easily distracted and less efficient at what they're trying to do. ????So your impression that doing several things at once slows you down and trips up your productivity is correct. But if your boss isn't impressed with academic research, Sanjeev Gupta, CEO of consulting firm Realization, suggests a quick game to prove the point. ????Here's how it works: Get a stopwatch, or any watch with a second hand, and time how long it takes you (or your boss) to write "multitask 123456789." Next, time how many seconds it takes to write the same thing, but this time with the numbers interspersed between the letters: "m1u2l3t4i5t6a7s8k9." ????Simple, right? When I tried this, it took me 9.5 seconds to write "multitask 123456789" -- and 24 seconds, or more than twice as long, to write the version that requires switching back and forth from letters to numbers. ????Okay, so maybe I'm just lousy at multitasking but, says Gupta, even master multitaskers (like you, perhaps) will see a dramatic difference. "It seems counter-intuitive, but if you give two employees two identical tasks, the one who focuses on one task at a time will always finish faster and with fewer errors than the one who multitasks," Gupta says. ????"Many people boast about their multitasking prowess on their resumes and in job interviews," he adds. "But in reality, this is like saying, 'I don't get things done as quickly, or as well, as others do.'" |
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