Product Information

I was in a meeting discussing things that I do not care about so I decided to fiddle around with my Blackberry. I opened my inbox and decided to respond to a client. I know it is rude but I just had to maximize my time.

Multitasking, if you like, is the buzzword today. It is the buzzword among business executives. Accomplishing more in a limited time span is something that everyone must know how to do. Or is it?

Well, the bad thing is when it came to me to respond to a question of the chair of the company, I realized I had not heard the question as I was busy replying to messages in my inbox. I wanted to ask him to repeat the question but I did not want to give the chair the impression that I was not in full attention to what was being discussed. I took the cue from the topic thread and tried to give my opinion about the proposed brochure printing design. I rattled off until my colleague nudged me to tell me that we have moved on to another topic. I was embarrassed but I tried to salvage the situation. This is the danger of multitasking.

Studies showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs. How does a 10-point drop in an IQ equate to? It is no different to losing one night of sleep. I bet you have experienced this before.

By: Kaye Z. Marks

blog comments powered by Disqus