Yes, yes, yes!!! The more focused I am on a single task, the better a job I do, whereas if I’m being pulled in several directions at once, I end up achieving less! In this downsizing, do more society, “multitasking” has become some kind of buzzword for a desirable quality. Call me a rebel, but I think multitasking is another way of spreading talents too thin. Let’s face it: no one can do several things at the same time and do them all equally well.

Full disclosure: I have ADHD (officially–I have a doctor’s note!). If anything, multitasking really screws me up because it accentuates everything that’s problematic with ADHD.

I’d be curious to know what other folks think about this. I believe it’s a very serious issue that is affecting the quality of work no matter what business a person is in.

Merlin Mann, writer of the blog 43Folders , discusses this topic often. Here’s a post on a New York Times article on the problems of multitasking that appeared March 26.

43Folders is a lifehacker, GTD, productivity blog. He’s done a series of interesting podcast with GTD founder, David Allen.

I thought I’d read something on this recently. Thanks, Jennifer! That’s where it was.

To respond to Arnie’s question ….while I prefer to work on one project at a time and give it my undivided attention, I’m able to work on several and have not found it to be a problem…other than occasionally misfiling, which is a huge waste of time. I think that women with children learn to multi-task as a way of life. So it becomes “normal”. I do find it pretty easy to get back on track (yes, I’m a poet in my spare time!) after an interruption.