Track Your Multitasking and Be Surprised
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 9:10AM 
I played with a little experiment this week in which I record in real time all activities I'm currently doing. I do this using my daily planning method as a platform (more information doing this kind of tracking in my product). In this case I mark all current activity using ">". In the screen shot you see that I (in this moment) have four going on:
- Writing an email asking for help promoting above product (part of emptying my inbox),
- Clearing out my email inbox,
- Writing this post (a form of capture), and
- Partially ("~") emptying my paper inbox.
Whew!
Yes, I'm aware that I'm multitasking when I'm doing it (occupational hazard), which doesn't make it productive, but tracking it brought it home. What can I do with this data? Ignore it! Seriously, it gives me an excuse to back off a bit. And I'll keep experimenting with a personal informatics principle I'm playing with: Information leads to awareness leads to action leads to insight. (A variation of the three A's: Awareness, Acceptance, Action?)
I'm curious: Feel like giving it a go? Does the informatics principle above hold water? How would you use this data?
Reader Comments (4)
Great multi-tasking post. I've got 3 computers on right now at my desk. I guess I'm not focusing on anything. Time to get back to work.
Too many of us forget that "tracking brings it home."
Good word.
Matthew Trogdon
Director of Business Development
OnMessage Inc.
www.itsonmessage.com
:-)
Thanks for reading, Darren. Now on to your previous comment and reply post.
I like the phrase, Matthew. Thanks for your comment.