This is the question I asked myself while studying the latest newfangled planning techniques.

Time management gurus argue hotly on this issue - some argue that multitasking is a way to get more done, others argue that it is impossible to do several things well at once.

Who to believe more?

My conclusion from my own experience is this: everything depends on each individual person, his character and temperament. For example, women are more multitasking - driving a car, putting on lipstick and talking on the phone is our purely “girlish” trick.

If you can quickly and without loss perform several important tasks at once, this is a cool skill that can and should be used!

For example, I belong to that same breed of Julius Caesars who are simply bored with doing one thing. But at the same time, it is sometimes very difficult for me to concentrate on an important task in order to complete it. This is a serious drawback that you have to work on manually.

So, multitasking is a great thing if you follow a few simple rules:

1. Try to combine activities from different areas - for example, physical and mental activity - listening to audiobooks while jogging in the morning, washing dishes and thinking through plans for the day, talking on the phone and dusting. This is purely female advice, based on the ability to use two hemispheres of the brain at once. And this is very helpful in the daily routine.
2. One of the tasks performed must necessarily be a skill brought to automaticity. That is, when performing it, you should not think at all about WHAT and HOW you are doing - your hands themselves perform the necessary manipulations. Then you can safely add one more thing.
3. Use "helpers". For example, simultaneously preparing lunch and negotiating with a client on Skype is my daily practice. Thanks to such a wonderful device as a multicooker.
4. One of the things being done is always a priority. That is, if you notice that you are tired, you need to leave minor things and complete the main things. Typically, this is a task with a time constraint or one on which the work of others depends. You cannot fail to do it.
5. Evaluate the results upon completion of the work. Are you satisfied with the quality of work? If you only did one of two things, would it be done better?
6. And finally, my personal rule is not to combine games and activities with the child and work. It’s better to captivate your baby with something interesting and get things done than to try to do everything at once, shouting over crying and indignation.

Seven at the same time, unrelated to each other.

In Ancient Rome, gladiator fights were not just entertainment, they carried an important religious meaning. In fact, these were sacrifices to the gods. Therefore, those who did not go to fights were looked at rather askance - much like in Russia they look askance at those who do not drink vodka :) Gaius Julius Caesar was precisely one of those who were not interested in gladiator fights. It’s unlikely that it was because he couldn’t stand the sight of blood, but rather because after all the wars he fought, gladiator fights looked the same as street football after the World Cup. However, as a “consul for life” he was forced to attend the battles. Populism in those years was much cooler than now :) In order not to waste time, Caesar was busy working with correspondence in his box.) So, when one of Caesar’s close people reproached Caesar - how can he watch battles and write letters at the same time? - Gaius Julius invariably answered, without taking his eyes off the letter, that “Caesar can do not only two, but even three things at the same time - watch battles, write letters, and talk. "

Healthy

Gaius Julius Caesar - ancient Roman statesman and politician, dictator, commander, writer. Gaius Julius Caesar was born in Subura, a suburb of Rome, located not far from the Forum, into a patrician family from the Julius family, which played a significant role in the history of Rome since ancient times. Before Caesar, the Julian family, despite their aristocratic origins, was not rich by the standards of the Roman nobility of that time. That is why, until Caesar himself, almost none of his relatives achieved much influence. After Sulla's death, Caesar returned to Rome and joined the political struggle. Caesar lost both trials, but despite this, he gained fame as one of the best orators in Rome. In 65 BC, according to some conflicting contemporary accounts, Caesar was involved in an unsuccessful plot to seize power. In 62 BC. Julius Caesar sends a praetor. Caesar's Gallic proconsulate was a direct continuation of his activities in the previous 7-8 years, aimed at obtaining under his command large military forces that could allow him to claim power and, if necessary, balance the military influence of Pompey. The brilliant results of the first expeditions enormously raised Caesar's prestige in Rome; Gallic money supported this prestige no less successfully. Senate opposition to the triumvirate, however, did not sleep, and Pompey in Rome experienced a number of unpleasant moments. Over the long period of his political activity, Julius Caesar clearly understood that one of the main evils causing a serious illness of the Roman political system is the instability, impotence and purely urban character of the executive power, the selfish, narrow party and class character of the power of the Senate. From the early moments of his career, he openly and definitely struggled with both. The guiding idea of ​​Caesar's foreign policy was the creation of a strong and integral state with natural borders, if possible. Caesar pursued this idea in the north, south, and east. In all of Caesar's reform activities, two main ideas are clearly noted. One is the need to unite the Roman state into one whole, the need to smooth out the difference between the citizen-master and the provincial-slave, to smooth out the differences between nationalities; the other, closely related to the first, is the streamlining of administration, close communication between the state and its subjects, the elimination of intermediaries, and a strong central government. Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC. at a meeting of the Senate. When friends once advised the dictator to beware of his enemies and surround himself with guards, Caesar replied: “It is better to die once than to constantly expect death.” A broad education, grammatical and literary, gave Caesar the opportunity, like most educated people of that time, to be active not only in politics, but also in literature. Caesar's literary activity in his mature years was, however, not a goal for him, but a means of a purely political nature. According to the unanimous testimony of all ancient authors, Caesar was distinguished by sexual promiscuity: “he was the lover of many famous people.”
noble women,” including the wives of his fellow triumvirate members - Tertulla, the wife of Crassus, and Mucia, the wife of Pompey; They also claimed his connection with the wife of his ally, King Bogud of Mauritania, Eunoe. Caesar was especially loved by Servilia, the sister of Cato the Younger and the mother of Brutus, which gave rise to the legend that Brutus was Caesar’s own son (although Brutus was only 17-19 years younger than Caesar, the height of the affair with Servilia was at the end of his 60s). s, when Brutus was already entering adulthood. The personality of Caesar has always attracted the attention of researchers of ancient history, but assessments of his activities were different. The founder of one of the first scientific schools of studying Roman history, Barthold Niebuhr, reservedly assessed the activities of the dictator. In 1724, on the instructions of Peter I F. Anokhin translated four books of “Notes” into Russian, but the translation was not published and was lost.

Caesar- one of the titles of the rulers of the Roman Empire. Descended from the cognomen of the Julius family “Caesar”, the bearer of which was a politician and commander of the Roman Republic of the 1st century. BC. Gaius Julius Caesar. Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. In the 3rd-4th centuries, the title “Caesar” was inextricably linked with the idea of ​​co-government, when the senior ruler, to whom the title “August” was assigned, shared power with the junior co-ruler, “Caesar”.

Greatest Generals: Gaius Julius Caesar

Often, in job requirements, employers write a requirement for applicants - the ability to multitask. Candidates are required to have the ability to quickly switch from one job to another and spend a minimum of time getting ready. This is sometimes also called the ability to conduct “parallel affairs.” Do two things at once, manage two projects at once. In practice, this situation happens when all employees are overloaded with work and, in order to save time, they are forced to multitask.

At first glance, it may seem that handling many things at once is a more productive approach to work. This type of employee appears to be more engaged and productive. But in fact, the practice of parallel cases does not always give the desired results.

In his book “The Brain: Instructions for Use” David Rock writes that the human brain is by nature single-tasking. He is able to solve two problems in parallel by very quickly switching from one task to another and back again. We don’t notice it, but switching from task to task requires a lot of energy, and involvement in each specific task decreases. As a result, a person who tries to combine several tasks decreases the quality of work on both of them. Errors occur more often, and the speed of the brain also decreases.

This is why a person who simultaneously talks on the phone and drives a car poses a threat to himself and others. He risks reacting more slowly to the situation. Not to mention the high chances of driving down the wrong road, missing a turn, and so on.

However, a person can do several things at the same time if some of these things are done at the level of habit and do not require much effort. Complex tasks that require a lot of attention are initially controlled by our prefrontal cortex. Over time, when this work becomes habitual and mechanistic, many actions are already performed unconsciously and gradually this type of work can move to the area of ​​the basal ganglia - these are the areas of the brain that are responsible for habitual actions. Therefore, you can easily talk on the phone, make coffee and get ready for work at the same time. However, there is a good chance that your coffee will run away, you will miss an important detail of the conversation, and you may forget something important at home.

That is, it is possible to conduct parallel tasks, but it is not recommended to do two complex tasks at the same time or frequently switch from task to task.

How to intelligently do many things in parallel

Sometimes multitasking is fine. For example, if you have a long commute to work by public transport or taxi, you can have free time to answer email or listen to an audiobook. Likewise, while standing in line at the Russian Post, it would be quite appropriate to make a few phone calls or also check your mail (electronic).

People who walk to work kill two birds with one stone - they do the most useful exercise of all possible (walking) and at the same time they can use meditation techniques - disconnecting from the hustle and bustle and enjoying the surrounding nature - in order to be more collected and focused at work .

At work parallel cases and tasks can also be completed. But you need to approach this wisely. For example, you allocate two hours of time for one task and during this time you should not divert your attention to the second project. Then a break is taken and another two hours are spent on the second project in the same way. The work scheme should be similar to that used in universities. On one day there can be from two to four pairs at school. Due to the fact that during one course you work with only one teacher, you manage to study from 8 to 10 different disciplines per semester. At the same time, you should not try to fit an unreasonably large number of projects into your work day. The more tasks you take on, the greater the likelihood of a deterioration in the quality of work in each of the individual areas of work. It's the opposite. You always need to know when it's time to stop.

Well-known video blogger and expert in the field of cognitive science Anastasiya Key talks about how constantly switching from task to task leads to rapid fatigue. A person gets tired faster. New hires often take on more work than they can actually handle. In the short term, there may actually be an increase in performance. In the long term, there may be a decrease in performance and even syndrome and. Split attention and constant distraction from business are also facilitated by the Internet, mobile gadgets that cause...

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When there is a lot of studying and little time, the temptation is great to try to combine it with other things. For example, writing a term paper and listening to a new music album. Preparing for an exam and chatting with a friend at the same time. Record a lecture and chat with a friend. At such moments, it happens that you think: “Eh, why am I not Julius Caesar?!” Which, as we remember, was famous for his ability to do several things at the same time. Today, by the way, is the birthday of the great ruler. In honor of this, I propose to think together about how to learn to do several things at the same time and whether it is worth doing.

Can the human brain solve several problems at the same time? Scientists are inclined to conclude that no. In fact, we do not do these things in parallel, but switch from one task to another. So the speed and quality of completing both tasks usually suffers.

On the other hand, with training you can increase the speed of these switches, which overall will allow you to work faster. That is, in a situation where you can do your things sequentially, it is better to do so - it will be more effective. But when you need to do one thing all the time (like writing a term paper) and another at regular intervals (like answering the phone), learning how to switch quickly can help you use your time efficiently.

In addition, we can combine actions that do not require our full attention and concentration, that is, what we do “automatically.” For example, a music teacher friend of mine told me that in her youth she sometimes put “The Three Musketeers” on the music stand instead of notes and played memorized pieces while reading a book. Or let's take a common example from life: many drivers completely calmly combine driving a car with talking on the phone. However, only as long as the movement is calm. If some non-linear situation arises on the road that requires greater concentration, the driver will immediately be distracted from the conversation.

To increase your multitasking in matters that do not require full concentration, you need to learn how to distribute your attention. There are a number of exercises for this. For example, writing different words simultaneously with your left and right hands. The hands will try to synchronize, which will seriously complicate the task. Or count out loud from one to 50, while simultaneously writing the numbers in reverse order - from 50 to one. Draw circles in different directions with different hands, and to complicate things, describe some shape with your foot. There is even such a direction as asymmetrical gymnastics, in which different parts of the body perform different movements. In this way, a person not only develops the body, but also trains the brain to control several actions at once.

Benefit or harm?

Should you use multitasking in your studies? The question is ambiguous. In most cases, combining mental work with other activities, we get distracted and, as a result, the speed and quality of work only suffers. Although there are exceptions. For example, some people are comfortable remembering information while listening to music. Moreover, having heard the same melody, they immediately remember what they learned to it.

How to do several things at the same time? Surely this question is of interest, first of all, to those people who often do not have time to do everything necessary, both at work and on a personal level. To give the answer, we will need to delve into the science called, that is, the art of time management.

Probably many people know a man who did several things at the same time - Julius Caesar. Largely thanks to this quality, he was remembered and went down in history.

Is it possible to replicate his abilities and how to do many things at the same time? More on that later.

First of all, and this is very important, you need to be able to divide all the things you do into 2 categories:

1. Active actions– these are actions that require concentration and mental effort (for example, writing an article, negotiating with a client, writing a report, etc.).

2. Passive actions– these are actions that are performed automatically and do not require concentration or mental effort (for example, driving to work, standing in line, eating, etc.).

It is also important to understand that for different people and in different situations the same actions can be both active and passive. For example, for a novice motorist or in a large stream of cars, driving is an active action, but for an experienced one and on a free country road it is a passive action.

So, if you are thinking about how to do several things at the same time, because you don’t have enough time, you need to start by doing active things in parallel with passive things.

Each person daily performs a certain number of passive actions that cannot be avoided and will have to be performed in any case. If you have to perform some passive action, think about what active things you can do in parallel with it.

The simplest option, which many people use, is to make the necessary phone calls while walking down the street (passive action). A mobile phone, and many other modern technologies, are generally a very useful thing - with their help you can do several things at the same time in a variety of situations.

For example, again, while driving down the street or even on public transport, you can listen to useful audiobooks on headphones - this will save you a lot of time, and also benefit yourself: firstly, you will learn useful lessons from the materials you listened to, secondly, you don't have to spend a significant amount of time reading these books. I admit that I myself walk a lot and actively use this method. You can listen to these same useful audiobooks in the car instead of useless radio or music.

If you perceive visual information better and are forced to passively spend some part of your time on public transport, you can use e-books for reading during this period. True, for this you will need to sit comfortably, which is not always possible, but you can always listen to the necessary material with headphones, thereby doing two things at the same time.

Using headphones and a mobile device, you can not only “read” books, but also do other useful things at the same time as passive ones, for example, learn English or take personal development training using audio lessons. Agree, it won’t be unnecessary, and you’ll spend your time profitably.

If you access the Internet from a mobile device, you can use this opportunity during passive travel on public transport or while waiting for important active tasks, for example, viewing mail and responding to important messages. Once on one of the forums I read that a student working part-time used the 2 hours a day spent on the train to write articles for sale using a laptop. That is, he actually earned money during the inevitable and routine passive processes, doing two things at the same time. Well done! Take note...

You can do several things at the same time not only with the help of modern gadgets. The second, active thing can be simply thought, mental processes. By performing a passive action, you can simultaneously make some plans, develop something in your mind, for example, tactics for holding an important business meeting. And, for example, when going to lunch during your lunch break, you can take a colleague with you and discuss some work issues over the meal so as not to waste working time on them.

Thus, it is possible and even necessary to do two things at the same time, competently combining passive and active actions. This will certainly give a good, useful result and will significantly save your time, which is not enough.

However, if we are talking about combining one active action with another, that is, doing two things at the same time, each of which requires concentration and mental effort, the effect will most likely be completely opposite. Namely, the result of both of these matters will suffer, neither of them will be completed efficiently, because... You will not be able to concentrate properly on any of them.

Why is this so? The answer lies in the way the human brain works. When a person concentrates on performing one active action, both his hemispheres are involved in the work, and the brain performs its functions in the best possible way. If a person simultaneously performs two active actions, then the functions are divided between the two hemispheres: the right hemisphere processes the first action, and the left hemisphere processes the second. In this case, the result will depend on how developed the brain is in a particular person, but it will definitely be of less quality than when performing one action. And if a person does several things at the same time (3 or more), complete chaos begins in the brain, and thought processes cannot proceed properly in any of the tasks being performed.

Thus, only a person with unique brain abilities (such as Julius Caesar) can do several active tasks at the same time so that they are all completed efficiently. An ordinary person is physiologically unable to do this.

To do this, when doing this, simply think through and write down a list of passive things that you need to do. Then think about what active tasks you can combine with these passive ones, doing them simultaneously, in parallel. Then all that remains is to carry out the planned plan, significantly saving time (and this, do not forget, is an irreplaceable human asset) and having time to do all the planned things.

Well, it’s better not to do several things in parallel, if each of them requires active mental activity - this will only make it worse for you, and the overall result will suffer. Concentrate on only one active action, and, if possible, carry it out in parallel with a passive one.

Now you know how to do several things at the same time, in which cases it is possible and makes sense. I hope that my advice will be useful to you and help you achieve success in any endeavor. Don’t forget that there are other, no less important ones that can and should also be used in order to have time to complete all the planned tasks.

See you again on the site, which will become your guide on the path to success, will increase your financial literacy and teach you how to use your personal finances as efficiently as possible.