James Surowiecki Quotes

Multi-taskers often think they are like gym rats, bulking up their ability to juggle tasks, when in fact they are like alcoholics, degrading their abilities through over-consumption.

Even though we think we're getting a lot done, ironically, multitasking makes us demonstrably less efficient.

There's no such thing as multitasking.

I think that we get so distracted with our smartphones... It takes your body and your brain time to switch between tasks. If we can focus on what we're doing, we'll be more productive at that task.

In effect, dividing your attention means that neither (or none) of the things you're working on is really getting the full effect of your intelligence, and that it in the end takes you longer than it would if you did one thing at a time.

I think Donald Trump is a preeminent multitasker, can handle multiple things at one time, and when he's committed to doing something, nothing stops him or gets in his way.

I've gotten much better at multi-tasking. It's hard, though. But, writing a script is not totally focused. You're taking little breaks, all the time. If a kid runs in, you give 'em a horsey ride. It's a pretty fluid process.

I think my biggest career mistake has been taking on too much. And I think this is kind of - I think it's related to the Internet world, where you're always multitasking and you have a million windows open and you feel like you can do a lot at the same time.

Task switching is hard because we do not control what is on our mind. Despite our efforts, the original task continues to occupy our mental bandwidth. Although we can control where our time goes, we cannot fully control how our bandwidth is allocated.

I'll always be working on five things at once, usually with those documents open at the same time because if I get stuck somewhere I'll jump over to something else. That's how my head has always worked.

Experts say you can't concentrate on more than one task at a time.

If you try to multitask in the classic sense of doing two things at once, what you end up doing is quasi-tasking. It's like being with children. You have to give it your full attention for however much time you have, and then you have to give something else your full attention.

I can multitask very well. But I know exactly when to block off anything coming in from the outside and just stay focused on the film.

Most of the work on multitasking suggests that it generally makes you less efficient, not more.

Don't think to hunt two hares with one dog.

Each thing I do, I rush through, so I can do something else.

I can do only one thing at a time, but I can avoid doing many things simultaneously.

You'd think people would realize they're bad at multitasking and would quit. But a cognitive illusion sets in, fueled in part by a dopamine-adrenaline feedback loop, in which multitaskers think they are doing great.

You can't work on 15 problems at the same time.

Play more than one game at a time. This is a painless way to learn how to do many things at once.

I have a crazy amount of different jobs, so the way I manage that is to not do more than one at a time. It's like old computers that had small memory chips, they would do something called swapping, where they would fill the memory with one task, do it and get it out.

To do two things at once is to do neither.

Multitasking is a part of my everyday life.

I've always been really good at staying busy. Even while I'm working, I'm looking at what the next thing is.

I'm quite good at multitasking, but I have to do things immediately.