The Liminal Librarian

This morning, as I was watching Jake read one book while simultaneously listening to a different title on CD, I flashed back to this Myth of Multitasking diagram that was making the rounds a while back.

I’ve been doing some reading on giftedness and how it can be misdiagnosed as ADD — part of the reason being teachers’ observations of gifted kids staring out the window, doodling, moving around, reading, or otherwise occupying themselves while the teacher’s talking to the class about something else. The difference here, though, is that gifted kids, when asked, are also following the teacher’s discussion — but, since it doesn’t occupy enough of their mind or covers ground they already know, they’re “multitasking” to keep the rest of their brain active.

For me, the effectiveness of multitasking is task-dependent — I read while I watch TV (although not as often now that we have DVR and can skip commercials!) — but not if what’s on TV is especially gripping or what I’m reading is especially dense. I often work on several articles at a time, writing a paragraph here, a paragraph there, and find that moving back and forth allows my brain to work on things in the background and helps prevent writer’s block. I have e-mail open all day, IM open often, and I’m quite sure that constantly checking e-mail saps my productivity (but can’t stop!).