Daniel Levitin Quotes

The conscious mind can only pay attention to about four things at once. If you've got these nagging voices in your head telling you to remember to pick up the laundry and call so-and-so, they're competing in your brain for neural resources with the stuff you're actually trying to do, like getting your work done.

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.

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

It comes down to a question of attention: it's difficult to use the Net distractedly, unlike the television or the radio.

Every second of every day, our senses bring in way too much data than we can possibly process in our brains.

People only have so much attention.

People's minds are overloaded with information.

I'm not very good at multi-tasking. Most people aren't, but they think they are. The mind is really better when you're really focused on one thing.

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.

There's no such thing as multitasking.

The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human 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.

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?

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

Most of us can easily do two things at once; what's all but impossible is to do one thing at once.

When you think you're listening to several conversations at once, they tell me, you may really simply be time sharing - that is, listening a little bit to this one, a little bit to that one.

I'll read anything. In fact, I'll read while I'm doing other things, which is not a good idea.

I have a theory about the human mind. A brain is a lot like a computer. It will only take so many facts, and then it will go on overload and blow up.

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.

Still, I tune out the visual input when it is too distracting, mainly in conversations.

Remember that we can only in our forebrains handle 5-7 items. Our backbrains can handle massive amounts. So when you're given a problem, think about it before you go sleep, and chances are you can solve it by the next morning.