• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, April 11, 2004

In a study that just on the face of it has an error factor of +/- 40%, Mobium Creative Group research says that 40%-83% of business professionals media multitask while doing things related to their work.

Media multitask, huh. Does that mean watching TV while you answer email? Or listening to the radio while you read the newspaper? Based on what I hear on the other end of the line, I think it means doing something else while you talk on your office phone.

Sometimes media multitaskers are easy to detect. When you hear keyboard or mouse clicks in the background, you know that you are getting a smaller percentage of someone's mind share who is also checking and replying to email. You can test this by slipping something into the conversation like: "Say, did you hear that your stock just dropped 46 points in the past half hour?" When you get back a foggy, "No kidding, that's interesting," you know you are being multitasked.

I see lots of multitaskers on the Metro North train in the mornings. Most of them are listening to iPods while they do emails on their Blackberries or read the paper. This means they don't hear the PA announcements that the train will be late because it ran over a partially filled discarded beer can and a drop of moisture hit a key electrical component intelligently housed under the train, where it routinely gets soaked by rain and snow. But I digress.

I am often forced to multitask against my will by my mother, who--although she never watches them--has an uncanny ability to know when NCAA basketball games are going down to the last shot. And calls during the time out to decide who will take the three-pointer with 1.2 seconds left.

"Is this a bad time?" is not in her vocabulary.

When you haven't called your mother in ten days, "It's a close game" is not a valid excuse. On the other hand, "diarrhea.gotta run" seems to strike a sympathetic note.

In my worldview, the answering machine is my friend. It helps me avoid multitasking--or worse, stop whatever I am doing that was more important than fielding a solicitation to contribute to the local police retirement fund. And, yes--napping IS more important.

My wife--perhaps because she is in sales--can't help but run to any ringing phone as if the person on the other end is going to finally say "yes" to the $25 million deal she had pending. But it is another school parent asking if we got the notice about the head lice outbreak at the Middle School. Which only proves my point that answering the phone is a high-risk, low-reward task.

There are some people who think that is OK to multitask when they are being pitched a media buy. One rep reported a buyer--well, a person who could buy some media--playing an online game during the presentation. Other buyers routinely mess with their Blackberries or palm pilots while the person across the desk's professional life flashes before their eyes. Someone I called on polished his shoes while reassuring me with an occasional "Go on, go on.." I'm sure he thought he was multitasking. I thought he was being a rude SOB.

Which brings me to the point. That like that other activity you should have stopped in high school, multitasking is best performed alone. If you can compose at the computer while listening to Bach or Jet, then bless your little media multitasking heart. But when you multitask with a live person in the room or on the end of the phone, you are not being clever and productive; you are being obnoxious and disrespectful.

Especially to your mother.

George Simpson is president of George H. Simpson Communications. His column appears weekly in MediaDailyNews.