Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

We've heard all the stories about the world of multitasking and the way of life it's becoming for a lot of people. Recent reports, says the New York Times, contradict the value that it supposedly represents.

Professionals like neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, say that it would be wise to cut back on that behavior than continue in it.

Some of the consequences of dividing our attention, no matter what our age, are our reaction time slows down and we make more mistakes. That takes in everything from studying, driving to on the job.

What are some of the things that can be done to decrease the impact? The general advice is that concerning e-mails, don't check them more than once an hour. If you listen to music while working or studying, use soothing instrumentals rather than lyrics and music together, which can distract you a lot. Other things that can lead to errors are instant messaging and television shows.

Most of us have heard that the younger someone is the better they are at multitasking. But according to research at the Institute for the Future of the Mind at Oxford University, that is now very much open for question.

The completed study showed that when taking a group of 18- to 21-year-olds and another group of 35- to 39-year olds and giving them "90 seconds to translate images into numbers, using a simple code," that those that were younger were able to do better by 10 percent if they weren't interrupted. But when there was an interruption via a phone call, text message or instant message, those in the older group performed just as well as the younger group.

“The older people think more slowly, but they have a faster fluid intelligence, so they are better able to block out interruptions and choose what to focus on,” said Martin Westwell, deputy director of the institute.

In a separate study, workers at Microsoft (MSFT) were found to take 15 minutes before they could return to doing serious mental tasks after they were interrupted by instant messages or e-mails.

Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft research scientist and co-author, with Shamsi Iqbal of the University of Illinois, of the study, said “I was surprised by how easily people were distracted and how long it took them to get back to the task, if it’s this bad at Microsoft, it has to be bad at other companies, too.”

Two things come to my mind when reading about this research. The first is that many times we assume because technology and the ability to do something with it is presented to us, that it's inevitable that we have to embrace it in an undisciplined and unmanaged way. This is definitely something that can be managed.

Second, not only can it be managed, it must be managed. Jonathan B. Spira, chief analyst at Basex, a business-research firm, estimates in the U.S. economy alone, the costs could roughly be up to $650 billion from the interruptions at work.

There's a lot to learn in this specific area yet, as the practice is so new. But a few of the things we talked about and some common sense guidelines for workers could go a long way toward improving things now.