Multitasking

I don't know if I've talked about this before, but it seems that so many things require multitasking nowadays and so much is set up to cater to it. For example, I can be doing several things simultaneously on the computer: checking/sending emails, blogging, tracking the status of eBay sales/purchases, updating my resume/artist materials... And I don't do near so much as Chuck who will multitask while working and IM-ing people all day long.

Multitasking can be great because of how much can be accomplished all at once, but I think that some things are hurt when not given one's undivided attention. Emails sent while doing other things may be interpreted differently than intended. Blog posts may become sloppy or disjointed. Other tasks may be neglected or skimmed over and possibly even done incorrectly.

It is especially easy to forget what one has done and to waste time unnecessarily redoing it (or, in some cases, intentionally redoing it to correct mistakes). It is also easy to forget where one is in any given process when working on several things at once. For example, I may have previously posted something to my blog about multitasking (probably while multitasking), but I cannot recall now.

So while multitasking allows me the opportunity to do many things at once and thus accomplish more, I question whether or not I can do any one thing as well as if I were devoting my attention solely to that one task.