the cost of multitasking

[mellowtigger]

I've noticed a few stories that I broke before Slashdot, but this time they found an interesting one for me. There's a story in The Atlantic about multitasking. Now, I'm lousy at multitasking. It's part of the reason why I've kept my phone turned off for the last decade.  (I've turned it on for months during my jobhunting, and it's very annoying.)  A phone is supposed to be there for MY convenience, not anyone else's. The obligation to answer a ringing phone interrupts everything else that might be going on at the time. Back when I was a programmer, I would set my phone to ring directly to voicemail rather than have it disturb me at my desk, interrupting my concentration.

It's a trait very common amongst autistics, but (as with other autistic traits) research is showing that it's true to a lesser degree of everyone.

"Multitasking messes with the brain in several ways. At the most basic level, the mental balancing acts that it requires—the constant switching and pivoting—energize regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination and simultaneously appear to shortchange some of the higher areas related to memory and learning. We concentrate on the act of concentration at the expense of whatever it is that we’re supposed to be concentrating on."

and

"Even worse, certain studies find that multitasking boosts the level of stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and wears down our systems through biochemical friction, prematurely aging us. In the short term, the confusion, fatigue, and chaos merely hamper our ability to focus and analyze, but in the long term, they may cause it to atrophy."

It's been noticeable, during the time that I spend around other adults, that my urge to simplify all aspects of my life is an essential part of what success I've achieved during the last 20 years.  I've started encouraging other autistics to simplify (control) all of the things that they can (phone, food, travel, email) to lower their stress levels so that they can better handle the stressors that are not subject to their control.

I named myself "The Mellow Tigger" 21 years ago.  The foresight still amazes me.