As many of you know, I’ve been reading the brain rules book. The information is actually nothing new. Many facts and myths have been heard before in may ways. however, reading some of these at different stages in your life, bring different insights. Much like the way the bible works. Not everything you read is useful today.

One of the points (#4: Attention) made me think about multitasking. Its now true that we cam do multiple task which do not need our full attention like cycling, driving, playing instruments (one man band), etc…. But doing work requires us to do one thing at a time. We learnt this from good studying practices, from parents nagging and others.

One practice which was mention is the fact that many of us are distracted and attempt to do many things requiring different skills. The book’s example used a teenager writing a paper on his laptop, while trying to SMS, IM with 2 people, write emails, playing a game and even downloading stuff off the net. The worse part when I read this was the fact that I do his all the time. Even right now I am writing my 2 papers, chatting to 3 people on IM, writing this blog post, SMSing and listening to music. If I was allowed to shift the blame, then it would have to be on the power of the Apple laptop. The problem is that macs does the multitasking so well. In fact there are several tools to help one do this, the open applications stay oen till you quit, spaces, expose, growl, etc…. The desktop is a distracting place. If it were a PC, i would only dare to have one application open at a time. But then my stress levels would be so high that it would not be good for learning or health.

Well ultimately I just have to blame myself, I would probably need to shut off my IM and growl notifications as they all try to grab my attention away from working…. But can I really shut off the emails, phone and smsing? Sigh, I need a writing retreat to an isolated place but with all the comforts of a home…. and a personal assistant