Note to self: Don't read in traffic

There's an interesting article on the New York Times site this morning about the
"brain hack" aspect of multitasking. They quote a research study that
offered these results as one piece of evidence that multitasking actually makes
us less productive:

In a recent study, a group of Microsoft workers took, on average, 15 minutes to
return to serious mental tasks, like writing reports or computer code, after
responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages. They strayed off to reply to
other messages or browse news, sports or entertainment Web sites. 

“I was surprised by how easily people were distracted and how long it took
them to get back to the task,” said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft research
scientist and co-author, with Shamsi Iqbal of the University of Illinois, of a
paper on the study that will be presented next month.

“If it’s this bad at Microsoft,” Mr. Horvitz added, “it has to be bad at
other companies, too.”

I remember when Windows first brought the world multitasking through multiple
windows (was that Windows 3.1?). I don't know what I'd do without the ability to
multitask...but I think this article makes a good point. Knowing when *not* to
multitask is probably just as important as being able to. (Confession: I have
been known to read and compose text messages while I drive...which is something
worth revisiting...) :)

Oh, how I identify. I detest the routine use of IM clients, for example. (Why
just last week I was ready to give final remarks on Hilbert's Tenth Problem and
then ... .)

I would like to think that my refractory period is less than fifteen minutes.
Dream on.

Waggler, I'll make only this confession: After a reasonabley polite interval of
inane, tediouis conversation, I may feign a peremptory need to text.