James Surowiecki Quotes

There's no such thing as multitasking.

Multitasking divides your attention and leads to confusion and weakened focus.

If someone around you is multitasking, you pick up distraction like second-hand smoke.

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.

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

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.

You wouldn't read 'Anna Karenina' and try to work on the computer at the same time, would you?

I do think to some extent multitasking is a way of fooling ourselves that we're being exceptionally efficient.

I find that I can't work and listen to radio - either I find I don't like it and it distracts me, or I do like it and I want to listen to it.

To be honest, I don't enjoy watching movies much when I'm working. They tend to fall apart on me a bit.

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

No more than a surgeon can operate while tweeting can you reach your potential with one ear in, one ear out. You actually have to reacquaint yourself with concentration. We all do.

While you're writing, you can't concentrate nearly as well on what the speaker is saying.

Multi-tasking arises out of distraction itself.

It's hard to watch something go on and be talking at the same time.

The secret to multitasking is that it isn't actually multitasking. It's just extreme focus and organization.

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 think people who multitask pay a huge price. They think they're being extra productive, and I think when you multitask so much you don't have time to think about anything deeply, you are giving the world an advantage you shouldn't do, and practically everybody is drifting into that mistake.

I multitask and always have the TV on in the background. If I need to focus, I generally have to turn off the TV.

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.

He that pursues two hares at once, does not catch one and lets the other go.

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.

It is easier to do many things than to do one thing continuously for a long time.

I have to always make sure I don't stay in one place and spend too much time one subject. I have my wife tell me [through an earpiece], "Come back! You're taking too long on that subject." I need to be reeled in.