Friday, September 5, 2008

David Allen on Multitasking - and More

man brushing his teeth

I'm a sucker for listening to speeches by certain people whose work I admire; I always seem to gain a bit more insight and inspiration.

On such person is David Allen, the time management guru known for his book Getting Things Done (often referred to as simply GTD). He was the keynote speaker at the recent Office 2.0 conference, and the conference producers were kind enough to put the talk up on the web.

I just finished watching it; here are a few things that caught my attention.


On multitasking:

The core processor in your mind cannot multitask. ...

Multitasking is what happens when you drive home and wonder who drove. ...

... For the brain to consciously, creatively, concentratedly focus on more than one thing at a time is impossible. Impossible!


More on multitasking:

It's not multitasking, it's rapid refocusing. If you look at a martial artist fighting four people at once, they don't fight four people at once. It's one at a time, just real quick refocus. [He then goes on to speak about what's involved in being able to refocus like that.]


On consistently following the GTD process:

Frankly, the way you change any habit is you get so used to the results of doing the behavior that you can't stand not getting those results. For instance, I clean up my in basket to zero and do thorough weekly reviews for the same reason I take showers and brush my teeth. If I don't, the scuzz factor gets too high.

Related Post: The Myth of Multitasking

[photo by rockbadger]

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