The Molecule of More

THE MOLECULE OF MORE

as you focus on the email. The person you’re talking to can tell. You’re
obviously not giving him your full attention, and you miss important
details. Instead of increasing your efficiency, “multitasking” decreases it.
Aza  Raskin, an  expert on  user  experience and  the  lead  designer for 
the Firefox 4 web browser, gives an example. Spell aloud, letter by letter,
“Jewelry is shiny” while at the same time printing your name. How long
does it take? Now spell aloud, letter by letter, “Jewelry is shiny” and
then, after you are done with that, write your name. How long did that
take? Probably about half as much time as “multitasking” did.
You also make more mistakes when you try to multitask. Interrup-
tions of only a few seconds, the amount of time it takes to switch to
your email program and back, can double the number of errors you
make on a task that requires concentration. It’s not just the distraction
that causes the mistakes; switching back and forth consumes mental
energy, and fatigue makes it harder to concentrate. Still, people do it,
especially people who work with computers.
A study from the University of California, Irvine, in collaboration
with Microsoft and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tracked
the work habits of people who spent most of their day online. The aver-
age amount of time they spent on one task before switching to another
was only 47 seconds. Over the course of the day they switched between
tasks more than four hundred times. Those who spent less time before
jumping to something else experienced higher levels of stress and got
less work done—if for no other reason than that they repeated the
“switch tasks” maneuver four hundred times instead of only once after
each task was completed. In addition to decreasing productivity, high
levels of stress also cause fatigue and burnout.

THE HIGH COST OF LIVING IN THE FUTURE

Living our lives in the abstract, unreal, dopaminergic world of future
possibilities comes at a cost, and that cost is happiness. Researchers
from Harvard University discovered this by developing a smartphone
app that prompted volunteers to provide real-time reports of their