“To do two things at once is to do neither,” said Publilius Syrus, a Roman philosopher who lived in the first century BC. Despite the hype multitasking has received over recent years, it would seem that most experts are coming around to agree with him.

Enter “multitasking” into Google today and almost every reference will mention in one form or another the popular book by Dave Crenshaw, The Myth of Multitasking: How Doing it All Gets Nothing Done. In his book, Crenshaw offers a new term to replace multitasking: “switchtasking,” as he argues that one cannot actually do multiple things at once, but rather must switch back and forth between multiple tasks. To find out more about Crenshaw’s book, see this review by Steven Aitchison, or visit Crenshaw’s website.

A discussion bubbled up here at the Work Life Creativity (WLC) blog, around multitasking and its various evils, with readers asked to share their secrets for avoiding the urge to multitask. The responses were wide ranging and included both low- and high-tech solutions, along with a bevy of opinions on what does and does not constitute permissible multitasking.

Here at Digital Natives, a project whose goal is “to better understand young people’s experiences with digital media,” Diana Kimball discusses (who else?) Dave Crenshaw, and reports on a talk she attended that was given by neuroscientist John Medina, author of Brain Rules, another work that sets out to debunk the myth of multitasking.

The consensus seems to be that multitasking – or switchtasking – erodes focus, decreases productivity and even reduces happiness. The cost of these practices are also discussed here, at Psychology Matters.

But multitasking has its defenders as well. Here at Lifehack, Joel Falconer claims that while multi- or switchtasking is usually a bad idea, there are exceptions to the rule. He also provides some easy rules to follow in case of such an exception. These include limiting multitasking to two activities and only doing it with activities that don’t generate outgoing information.

And finally, if you are in the mood for a good chuckle, check out this five minute podcast on multitasking in China from Technomic Asia’a Kent Kedl. A business consultant who works in Asia, Kedl regales listeners with tales that include a CEO taking a personal phone call at the crucial moment of a business deal, and electronics salesmen trying to answer questions from several customers simultaneously.

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