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The Myth of Multitasking Dave Crenshaw

I am long overdue on a review of this book, which I feel bad about because I really enjoyed it. Maybe I didn’t get to it because I was too busy multitasking…

First off, this is written as a business novel. Lately, I have been really weary about business novels. For one, I’m not a novel reader and, since The Goal, the only business novels I’ve liked and gotten through are SHORT ones, including All I Need to Know About Manufacturing I Learned in Joe’s Garage: World Class Manufacturing Made Simple and The Ice Cream Maker: An Inspiring Tale About Making Quality The Key Ingredient in Everything You Do.



This book, written by business coach Dave Crenshaw, tackles the idea of “multitasking” — that we can do two things at once. If you think about multitasking from a Lean perspective, you might think about the practices of Standardized Work.



In a factory, standardized work assumes a person can really only do one thing at a time. At most, you might reach for a part with your left hand while simultaneously reaching for a tool with your right. But, this is a relatively simple task that, in a repetitive manufacturing environment, can be done without thinking and through a lot of muscle memory.

In professional settings, we often trick ourselves into thinking we can multitask. While on conference calls, people play Minesweeper or surf the web. This works, except for when you realize you haven’t been listening or someone calls on you and you can’t answer — it’s embarrassing. Nurses and other medical professionals are often the queens (and kings) of multitasking, or so they think. Can we really do TWO things at once? Can a medical secretary really be entering data into the computer while taking a phone call?

read full review here

The Myth of Multitasking