The Real LJ Idol Season 9 Week 12 Barrel of Monkeys

[puppetmaker]

When I was a kid I would play the Barrel of Monkey game with my friends. The rules were pretty simple. Here they are from the side of the barrel, Dump monkeys onto table. Pick up one monkey by an arm. Hook other arm through a second monkey's arm. Continue making a chain. Your turn is over when a monkey is dropped. Simple rules but a PITA game. There were strategies that you could employ but eventually the monkeys would fall of the chain.

There are some very interesting articles that have come out within the past year challenging our thinking on multi-tasking.

It uses to be a badge of honor that you were a good at multi-tasking then it almost became a job requirement.

Now scientists are saying not so fast. It may not be a good thing for one’s brain to do this. That people are not being more productive, but they are more emotionally satisfied with their work.

It seems, except for the rare few, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be able to juggle more than one task at a time and most of our brains aren’t wired that way. It creates an illusion of productivity rather than actual productivity.

Tasks are not handled as well. Things slip through the cracks. The monkeys start slipping off the carefully crafted chain.

(Just FYI listening to music and doing a task is not multi-tasking according to scientists.)

Our brains seemed to be set up to handle two tasks if they are on either side of the brain and that’s about it. The rest may look good but the results are nothing to write home about.

There is also a lower retention rate for information when multi-tasking.

Plus with the bombardment of information from our various electronic and social means of communication, it takes some time to sort out what information is important and what you can just forget. In that constant input can be important information that gets lost in the signal to noise ratio. Again you have a lot of monkeys but it gets harder to string them together.

We do some of our best work and thinking when we are focused rather than distracted by additional input that has no relevance to the task at hand.

I can be very guilty of this when working on something and then I find myself on Facebook catching up with friends or tumblr looking at gifs and tiffs and all the other graphic formats. Then it is a half an hour later and the monkeys I thought I picked up are all over the floor again.

When push comes to shove, I can focus but, sometimes, to do so I have to shut down my computer and turn off my iPad, iPhone, and all the other electronic time sinks that we own. The act of having to spend the time to turn something back on and get it to boot up can be a mighty deterrent to doing so.

We can pick up the monkeys. We just have to learn how.

this has been my entry for LJ Idol. I had this idea back when the topic was first announced. It has just taken me most of the week to focus on my idea long enough to write this essay. I hope you will vote for me when the time comes. Thank you.

Comments

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

Well said. I can think of a few (dozen) people whose foreheads I'd like to tape this to.

[kagomeshuko.livejournal.com]

I like this take.

I can multitask on somethings, but yeah, there are other times I need to concentrate on one thing.

Right now, I'm concentrating on reading LJ Idol entries.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I live this. I'm often on my laptop - reading entries, playing games, whatever - and also doing something on my iPhone intermittently, while also watching TV. I can honestly say that everything gets halfway paid attention to, which is definitely not the best way to do anything!

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

So true! AW

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

It's becoming a more and more prevalent issue... certainly the texting and driving problems have been deadly. But isn't this all about "The Next Thing?" Being fulfilled by having something else to do. It's an interesting take and an important one as we are dealing with a society that is changing as rapidly as the internet.

[shimmerdream.livejournal.com]

This is so true. Personally, I know I'm rubbish at multitasking - I'm very much a "one thing at a time" person.

[minikin.livejournal.com]

heh. I started one entry, then had to save it for later. When I came back to it, a day or two later, I couldn't catch the original thread that led from Monkeys to my Red Chair. i have a strange brain.

I ended up playing hooky from my lap swim yesterday to write my entry. At Panera, so my house couldn't distract me.

And they're wrong about music. They just don't know what it means to LISTEN to music. Sure, it could be playing in the background while I'm doing something, but if I'm concentrating on a task, I can't learn lyrics or harmonies, and if I concentrate on the lyrics and harmonies, I can't focus on a task. Knitting doesn't count. ;)

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

This was a pretty interesting take...I loved your comparison and have been guilty of a few things you mentioned..Thanks for this reminder..:)

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

This was quite informative. I'm definitely a multi-tasker, but only because I'm a mom. I think mothers have to have the ability. Plus, I do believe, science has found that women are more suited to being multi-taskers. Again, probably because we've born the brunt of child rearing and evolusion made us that way. :)

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

Turning things off is really useful when you're trying to get something done.

[uncawes.livejournal.com]

Hard to focus on just one thing with all those monkeys on your back

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

I find I really need to focus for deeper or creative tasks.

Some people write to music-- I find it a huge distraction! I can code to classical music, but I'd do better with silence. I often don't have the choice now-- I have to blot out the noise from the cubicles around me just to concentrate. Rock music? Only good for testing code...

I wish I could get our kids to settle down and stop thinking they're 'multitasking.' There are dinosaur parts of me that think that Smartphones might as well be the work of the Devil, for the impact they have on people and relationships. :O