The Multitasking Myth: You may think you’re being productive, but, get real, you're not

You know how those one-size-fits-all garments never really fit anyone properly? In a way, the same principle applies to multitasking. When you’re trying to do more than one thing at a time, you don’t do any of them well. You may think you’re being productive, but get real. You’re not.

[Editor's Note: This sticker seen in Paris satirizes the popularity of communication in SMS shorthand. In French: "Is that you? / It's me! / Do you love me? / Shut up!"}

A prime example of this is texting while _________ (fill in the blank). You are deceiving yourself if you think you can do anything else effectively while punching out a message on teeny-tiny buttons. It’s not touch typing. You have to look at the keys. And while you’re doing that, you can’t be watching something else at the same time — like the road, if you’re driving. I know. You think that diverting your gaze for just a fraction of a second is not a problem. Do you have any idea how far your car will travel in that instant if you’re hurtling down the highway at 80 miles per hour? (And why are you doing that in the first place, by the way? Isn’t the speed limit 65?) So much can happen in that brief time: The idiot in the next lane (yes, you’re not the only nincompoop on the road) may choose that precise moment to cut in front of you … you might hit a pothole you hadn’t noticed … the traffic may have come to a sudden stop because of an accident up ahead (probably caused by a driver who was answering his email or surfing the net).

Unfortunately, our phones may be “smart,” but they enable us to do so many stupid things.

Almost as dangerous as texting while driving is texting while walking. People who do this have been known to break an ankle when stumbling on a rock, fall into open manholes, topple into rivers or into fountains in shopping mall, collide with baby strollers — or with strolling babies … The possibilities for disaster are limitless.

Never mind calamities that result in physical harm to yourself or others. What about just missing out on living in the present moment? Life isn’t happening on a two-inch square screen, People! It’s going on all around you. You know what I mean, I’m sure. We see parents at dance recitals, soccer games, graduations — engrossed in texting, instead of focusing on their little darlings who are going to be grown and out of the nest almost before the next message pops up on mom’s or dad’s I-phone. Meanwhile, students in classrooms are surreptitiously texting, oblivious to the words of their professors — gems for which they (or, more likely, their parents) have paid big bucks. And what about that guy next to you at the movies who keeps sneaking peeks at text messages (probably sent by his girl friend sitting beside him), both ignoring the blockbuster flick on the big screen that they’ve been dying to see?

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The Multitasking Myth: You may think you’re being productive, but, get real, you're not

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