• by January 30, 2006

The headline on ABCNews.com said it all: "Multitasking Drives Workers to Distraction."

No kidding, I thought.

Actually, I thought something way stronger than that.

You see, this here Minute is tired of the on-demand thing. It impairs judgment, analytical skills, creativity, efficiency, and communication. Focus on one thing at a time. Focus. On. One. Thing. At. A. Time.

What's that?

E-mail, instant messaging, the BlackBerry, the cell, the phone, they're all great. But not at the same time. Talk about concurrent media usage. No wonder adult ADHD is on the rise. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Did ya get that? ADHD.

Oops. There goes the ringer on my colleague's insistent cell phone again. Can you turn that thing down? Please. Every day we say the same thing. Volume. Control.

So, the ABCNews.com story says that all those gadgets we tote so proudly with such self-importance are actually "frazzing" us and making us respond on demand to every request. We have become more aware of this recently. On-demand media. On-demand communication. On-demand wish fulfillment. On-demand everything.

ABC's story says that "frazzing" is short for frantic multitasking and it takes a huge toll on our productivity, as our minds attempt to change gears to meet all the requests we receive. Can't leave that IM hanging? Nope. We've all fallen prey to that incessant blinking bar. Oh, but it's so helpful too!

Now there's some thinking that multitasking is killing us. "It's a very tough tightrope to balance oneself on," Jonathan Spira, CEO of Basex, a tech consulting firm, told ABC. "Everything could be the next important emergency that needs to be taken care of."

A study of office workers found that they were interrupted, on average, once every 10 and a half minutes. And then it takes them 23 minutes to get back to their original task. Make that once every 5 minutes or less for this here Minute--and we're not the only ones.

The ABC story quotes Jeffrey Frumin, a marketing consultant in New York: "I would say simultaneously I would have three things going at once," he said. "I'm on the phone, I'm instant messaging, and reading and responding to e-mails," he said. Sound like you?

A Basex report finds that the average "knowledge worker"--someone who is part of the growing information economy--loses 2.1 hours a day to interruptions. If those workers make an average of $21 an hour, that adds up to $588 billion a year--more than the gross domestic product of Argentina.

"If I didn't multitask, it would be a very, very long day," said Heather Dubuque, a client relations manager in New York.

What's the answer? Just stop. Pause. Everyone deserves a chance to think and prioritize. That's an on-demand order.