Why are we doing so much?

John O'Connell

I’m adding one more activity to my to-do list: Start a campaign against multi-tasking.

When the heck did we become so driven to produce so much, to do so much? Everyone I talk to says they’re exhausted. Everyone’s multi-ing so many tasks that they have to schedule their relaxation periods on weekends, as if downtime is a shirking of their duties to be constantly producing something, always accomplishing something, doing more, faster, more efficiently.

And when gas prices were at their highest, it made things worse. We had to drive economically, plotting out our many weekend task-venues like we were the logistics officer for a slog from Normandy to Berlin. Can’t waste any precious fuel with an unscheduled detour on some sudden inspiration. Blow the horn at that guy in front who hasn’t sped ahead even though the light’s been green for 1/60th of a second!

In a study of human perception published by the American Psychological Association, researchers found that we actually lose time switching from one mental task to another. In the study, David Meyer, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan, wrote that “a mere half second of time lost to task-switching can mean the difference between life and death for a driver using a cell phone, because during the time that the car is not totally under control, it can travel far enough to crash into obstacles the driver might have otherwise avoided.” And he didn’t even mention texting while driving, which studies are now proving is utter stupidity.

Remember when people said computers would save time? Well, they were right, and wrong. Computers help us process tasks much faster than we would process them without computers. No doubt. But the benefit of all this faster processing means we can -- and do, and are expected to -- do more. Way more.