MULTITASKING ISNT FOR US

 

Why Im not excited about multitasking!  On iOS, OS X, Windows or any other platform, multitasking simply is not a good fit for humans.

The reason is that while these operating systems might multitask and quite efficiently at times, humans and human brains more specifically, cannot multitask.

Let’s take the typical working day. Let’s say that you finish eating lunch at home and get back in the car to drive to your office. On the way to work you remember that you have to pick up some groceries on your way back home.

[toDoArray addObject:@”groceries”];

A few minutes later a call comes in and you are asked to email some information to a client.

[toDoArray addObject:@”emailSales”];

Now you realize you do not have that client’s email, but a friend of yours does have it. You decide to call that friend and ask him for the information so you move over your phone application.  You get the client’s email but along with that information comes an invitation to a social gathering later on that night.  Now you must switch over to your calendar app and add that reminder. You probably want to add a reminder to notify your spouse as well.

[toDoArray addObject:@”socialGatheringAtPedros”];

[toDoArray addObject:@”notifyWife”];

After all these distractions you finally open up your email client in order to send the information. If you’re lucky you have managed to reach your office without crashing.  Don’t cry victory yet, you still have to park your car.

You open up your email client just to realize you have five new email messages.  Two of these require urgent attention.  You are lucky enough to have the information needed by one of these two emails, however you must open up What’s App and search through many chats in order to retrieve information for the last email.

[toDoArray addObject:@”findDataForLastUrgentEmail”];

As luck would have it the information was not in your What’s App application but you are sure it’s either in your Twitter client or Facebook.  You search both these applications without any success and as soon as you are about to tap on Google+, a “Running with Friends” game notification pops up on your screen and you accidentally tap on it and you’re taken to the App Store for an in app purchase.  Now you realize you have about three updates pending for applications. You tap on “Update All” and realize you do not have Internet connectivity at the moment.

[toDoArray addObject:@”updateApps”];

So your phone is multitasking quite well, it has Twitter, Facebook, What’s App, Calendar, App Store and  a few other applications running at the same time.

You on the other hand right now are probably parked on top of your boss’ car, are fired, are getting insulting messages from your spouse because you did not notify her on time, your friend is upset because you did not RSVP, the kids are mad because you did not pick up the groceries, and you have lost one of the most important sales of your career.

[self didReceiveMemoryWarningAndABunchOfOtherRuntimeWarningsAsWel];

[toDoArray dealloc];

[self dealloc];