WEBVTT - Interrupting Cow: Multitasking, Interruptions and Distractions 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.560 Works dot com. Hey wasn't stuff to blow your mind. 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:16.520 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:18.520 do you have a knock knock joke? Let's have it. 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:24.640 Knock knock? Who's there? Interrupting cow? Interrupting cow? Oh, that's 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:26.840 a that's a that's a good one. That's Do you 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:29.200 see that how I interrupted you? Because I was the 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.199 cow interrupting. And when the cow interrupts you, its like 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:34.320 it breaks your brain. Like for a split second, you're like, 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.480 what's happening because you're messing with the flow of the joke, 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.080 and then you're moving and it's just like it's like 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.319 a cognitive weapon. Okay, So what does the interrupting cow 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.519 have to do with what we're talking about today? It 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:50.880 has everything to do with us multitaskers and the different 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.640 ways that we interrupt ourselves and distract ourselves, and the 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:57.120 sort of psychic toll that it takes on us. Are 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:00.160 you a multitasker? Oh? Yeah, sure, ye oh sure. Are 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.280 you good at it? No? I know, you know, of 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.120 course I've thought that I was good at it. I 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.440 think that At some point I thought of myself as 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.440 like being like the Judo master of um of multitasking 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:15.440 and you know, sort of like moving through space and 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:18.880 time in the most efficient way. But as we will 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.520 find out, that is a myth. We are not good 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.440 at multitaskers. UM. There are a few people who are good. 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.520 They're supertaskers. People talk that is the one percent we are. 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.440 We will talk about those guys of supertaskers in another podcast. Though. 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.760 Of course, the thing about multitasking is that, okay, you 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:39.920 you know you're not good at multitasking, you do it 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:44.000 anyway because it's a necessity in this life that we live. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.039 And I and I I know I'm not good at 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.520 multitasking either, but I sometimes kind of trick myself into 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:53.160 thinking I'm doing something other than multitasking. Like I think 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:56.640 that I can have tweet that going in the background 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.160 for the social media stuff, and have my email open 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.440 and be listening to music and working on something and 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.480 then and then having to jump to another project shortly 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.600 after that, and I think that that's that it's working 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:11.840 for me. And a lot of people that are actually 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.400 they actually believe that they are good at multitasking at 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.920 least in some instances, like they think that it's totally 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.280 cool to study for an exam while watching Safe by 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.400 the Belt or whatever the kids watch these days, Okay, 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:26.640 And and there have been some studies into it, particularly 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.280 Zing Wang So, the lead author of a study and 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.959 assistant professor of communications at Ohio State University, and and Uh, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.320 Zing was very interested in exactly how this plays out 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.440 and why people are so confident in their ability to 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:41.720 do something that they're not good at. Yeah. I mean 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.639 most everyone thinks that they're a great multitasker. Yeah, even 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.400 if you you may ask somebody in your life, maybe 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:49.480 you may ask them, hey, are you a great multitasker? 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.160 And they'll say, uh, you know, no, I'm not really, 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.160 but they still think that they can they can do 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.560 some of these things such as the classic uh talk 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.519 on the phone while driving or God help us text 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.600 while doing some driving. Yeah. And again we'll talk more 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.280 about that in the next podcast. But what I think 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.399 that zing Wang was trying to get at is why 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:13.040 do we do this? What what compels why are yeah, 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.280 why do we think that we're doing a great job here? 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.200 Because really it is an illusion. Um, you know, when 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:23.200 you're multitasking, you feel really productive. Um. But there was 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.920 this this one great psychiatrist who said his name is 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:30.079 Edward M. Holloway. He said that we think that we're multitasking, 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.760 but really not. It's like playing tennis with three balls. 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.240 Okay um, And so zing Win got at the bottom 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.760 of this by recording the students media use and other 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.720 activities for twenty eight days, including why they use these 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.160 very various media sources and what they got out of it. 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.440 And he said that they seem to be misperceiving the 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.320 positive feelings they get from their multitasking. They are not 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:58.040 being more more productive, they just feel more emotionally satisfied 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.040 from their work. So she had said studying for exam 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.000 and watching Saved by the Bell, I guess I mean 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.280 that's I never did that, but I certainly would try 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.080 to combine studying and watching TV. It's kind of a 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.160 you know, the a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.840 go downcome right right, um. And he said that they 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.159 felt satisfied not because they were effective at studying, but 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.960 because the additional or the addition of TV made the 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:28.080 studying entertaining. So they were entertaining themselves. While they were studying, 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.560 which I think is really interesting. Um, and he's saying 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.400 that this combination of activities accounts for the good feelings 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.680 that were obtained. Okay. The problem here is that when 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.280 you were studying and when you're doing this, when we're 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.640 trying to do a deep dive into something and recall 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.520 the information later, Uh, what you find is that you 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.560 have a very low level of of retaining that information. Yeah. 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:52.400 All you can picture is screech, and you know, like, 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:54.760 that's not it. I need the theorem. I was studying 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.000 and all I can picture of screech. And again, this 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.640 is something we'll go into a bit more in terms 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.640 of of what multitasking does to short term and long 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.679 term memory. But for the purposes of the study, zang 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:10.039 Wang was just saying, I feel like everybody should sing 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.920 Wang tonight. By the way, Yeah, I had to say it. Um. 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:15.719 Anyone was really just trying to say, look, it's not 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.120 it's not effective. Yeah. The problem is that it is 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.039 emotionally fulfilling. And that's the key here is that when 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:27.560 you're doing it, when you're when you're cooking and also, um, 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.360 you know, studying for an exam and watching TV and 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.839 maybe you know, doing a little jing on the side. 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.600 You're you're doing all these things, and in the heat 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.320 of the moment, it probably feels pretty awesome. You're like, wow, 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:41.880 I am just totally ruling here. I'm reaganting like like 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.240 like hardcore, just to succeeding at every task set before me. 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:50.000 And then afterwards you've wind up to realize that the 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.560 the mix you're working on is horrible, the food is burned, 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.280 you didn't understand what you were studying, and you're really 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.640 confused on the plot for the plot of the show 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.000 you're watching on TV. You end up not doing really 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:01.520 good at any of the task you where you do 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.599 everything poorly, but emotionally you at least for a few 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.320 seconds there you were. You were floating on air. You 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.080 really felt like you were you were succeeding. You had 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:15.360 figured it out. Um, you're basking. The glory of multitasking. Yeah, 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:17.760 it reminds me. There's a bit on The Simpsons where 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:19.720 Bart goes to the park where all the old men 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.480 are playing chess and there's this little montage of him 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.280 playing three different games of chess at three different tables, 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:28.359 and you it's setting it up like it's gonna be 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:31.440 this child prodigy thing where he's he's just totally ruling 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.200 in each of these games, but then he's it's a checkmate, 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.200 like just a turn or two on each one, and 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.320 he ends up losing each one really bad. And that's 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.760 I think a pretty good model for multitasking and the 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.800 illusion of multitasking. So do you think that there are 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.880 any exceptions? Are there? Are there any times that we 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.760 can multitask? You can do it well, yes, I mean 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.960 according to the studies it and you have to define well, 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:01.599 like there's there, for instance, proficiently proficient like with for instance, 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:03.520 with driving, Yes, there are things you can do while 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:07.680 driving and not die but most of the time, but 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:09.840 it doesn't mean you should do them. But generally it 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:14.480 comes down to are you combining two visual tasks because 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.680 that's not gonna work, for instance, looking at a tech 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.720 screen while driving, watching a TV while also trying to 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:23.960 watch the dinner you're cooking, or are you combining an 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.720 auditory in a visual task. Are you cooking while listening 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.800 to the radio, Are you, uh like in my case, 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:33.120 are you researching a topic while listening to music? Or 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:35.200 are you doing some sort of And it also it 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.440 comes down to how much cognitive power is involved. Like 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.320 I don't really listen to audio podcasts with words in 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.480 them anymore, But I used to do more of that 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.400 when I had a borning newspaper job and I was 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.520 like building pages on a screen. There's a mind was task. 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.360 So I had the cognitive room to fill up with 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:55.640 a whole bunch of podcasts and NPR radio shows and stuff. Well, um, 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.280 I'm thinking even more sort of wrote activities like walking 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.640 and chewing gum, because when it comes to that, you know, 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.920 the more simplistic activities that don't take up a lot 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:07.960 of mental energy. Yeah, we can do them right, especially 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:11.440 if there are things that we've done over and over again. Um, 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.880 But can we walk and talk at the same time 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:18.520 and still multitask well? Some would say that perhaps not 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.480 um in a study be him in at all. In 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.800 two thousand nine, people talking on their cell phones while 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.320 walking ran into people more often. That's not a surprise, 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.520 I think, and didn't know didn't notice what was going 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.040 on around them. The researchers this is my favorite part. 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.720 The researchers had someone in a clown suit ride a unicycle. 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.760 The people talking on a cell phone were much less 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.800 likely to notice or remember the clowns. So even something 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.280 as simplistic as that, um, you can see that that 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.599 our attention is bifurcated. We can't necessarily pay attention to 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.559 the degree that we really need to. Your brain, it 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.880 turns out, can only do one thing at a time. Well, yeah, 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.240 so whatever else you're doing right now, stop it. Just 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:05.480 listen to this podcast unless it's driving, you know, don't 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:10.360 stop driving. Pull Over, pull over podcast, pull over. Listen 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.200 to the rest of it. Underneath the overpass. Okay, but 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:17.400 the question becomes, to what degree is this self sabotage? 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.440 What I mean, how much do we interrupt ourselves in 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.680 this multitasking and distract ourselves. We are going to try 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:36.840 to attempt to answer this question right after this message. Okay, 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.880 we're back. Now, let's think about some typical multitask game, 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.600 particularly at the office, because this is where we we 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.719 tend to multitask a lot. When you're sedentary and your 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.719 brain is buzzing, you tend to try to figure out 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.880 as many ways to accomplish tasks as possible. Right, right, So, 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.760 I've got my cell phone, I've got my email open 0:09:56.200 --> 0:10:00.319 tweet deck may have the Facebook page open separately. I've 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:04.160 got one or two windows open from my documents. I've 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:08.760 got my iTunes playing, and like sixteen windows in Firefox. Okay, 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.880 let's also out on that. Maybe you have you're on 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.760 a telephone conference call and you have on mute okay, 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.960 because they come to hear anybody chewing gum while while 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:22.600 they're conducting a teleconference. Um, chewing gum. Two. There you go. Right. 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.400 So there's a two thousand and five study and it's 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:31.640 called No Task Left Behind, examining the nature of fragmented work, 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.880 and it found that people were interrupted and moved from 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:39.199 one project to another about every eleven minutes, and each 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.280 time it took about twenty five minutes to circle back 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.440 to that same project. Now that's pretty amazing, right. They 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.920 were interrupted either by themselves they did something, or maybe 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:53.480 someone stopped by, or I don't know, maybe um, someone 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:55.600 was clipping their nails in the office, because that that 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:59.360 can be interrupting. Sorry about that. They grow really, I 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.000 mean they're just really hard and hard to cut. Well yeah, 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.520 I mean, and your hair grows pretty fast. I get it, 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:09.120 I get it. Um, they need to be maintained. Actually, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.160 it wasn't outing you, but that seems to be the case. 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:18.120 But in case, there are tons of interruptions. Um, but 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:22.480 every eleven minutes, how do we get things done? I mean, 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.520 I guess at a very slow pace. I mean because 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.600 you also have to count in go into the bathroom 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.000 drinking water and coffee, which then ups the amount of 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:31.800 times you have to go to the bathroom. And on 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.240 the plus side, if you're like me and you can't 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:36.000 really set still for very long, you do get a 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.040 lot of pacing in, so it's a good exercise. But 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.480 but yeah, I I have found myself, you know, working 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.560 on a project something I needed to get done, and 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.520 then I either I go to check in on social 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:48.240 media and I'm not talking about private social media, but 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.680 like work social media another work task, and uh, and 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:53.320 you kind of go down the rabbit hole there and 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.560 then you come back around it's like, oh, well, half 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.200 hours passed, and now I'm finally getting back to the 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:01.160 task that I am working on today. And now the 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.720 thing though, is that it seems, um, it seems so 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.160 easy to vanquish this problem. If you had only one 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:10.480 thing you were working on, it wouldn't take you twenty 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:12.319 five minutes to get back to that, right, because you 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.560 wouldn't go bouncing around the five different things that you 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.200 are working on summy teamlessly. But of course that's just 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.120 I think in this day and age, something that we're 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.560 not going to do because the most part because if 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:26.480 you know, it's one thing to like say cut, shut 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:28.360 down tweet deck and say all right, I'm done social 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.520 media for the day, not opening that until I get 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:32.600 done with this task. But if you close out your 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:34.679 work email, you're like, it's there's a lot want to 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:36.680 be a fire drill. I mean not a literal fire drill, 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.160 but there's gonna be somebody to shoot you an important 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.800 email and then they're gonna they're gonna wonder where you went, 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:45.960 what happened to you? Um, So are our jobs increasingly 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.280 uh and and it's one of these papers pointed out, 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.600 especially when you look at at the businesses that have 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:55.560 scaled down that have combined positions. Um, everyone's doing six 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:59.640 or seven different things, so by necessity, they have various 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.960 tasks that have to be completed and they end up overlapping. 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:06.200 It's true, and you're right, it's just part of the environment. UM. 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.960 Gloria Mark is a professor of informa informatics at the 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.959 University of California, Irvine and co author of the study 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.560 the Cost of interrupted work, more speed and Stress, and 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.520 she says that people were um in this study as 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.480 likely to self interrupt as to be interrupted by someone else. 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:26.319 So again, I think that it speaks to this behavior. 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.640 It's not just an outside force acting honest, it's something 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:35.040 internal that doesn't allow us to necessarily concentrate for for 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:39.120 large chunks of time. She said that observe as observers 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.880 will watch and then after every twelve minutes or so, 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.360 for no apparent reasons, someone working on a document will 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.480 turn and call someone or email. She thinks that the 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.319 increasingly shorter attention span probably has something to do with it. Yeah, 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:54.959 I mean, and you can definitely see internet and gadgets 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.240 of being a part of that. Because used to if 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.000 you're going to be distracted by the book you're reading, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.160 you're distracted by a book you had with you, or 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:03.240 maybe you know the two or three books you had 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:05.480 on you. If you're distracted by music, I mean, how 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:07.200 much music could you have on hand at your desk 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.040 in any given time, and how much research material could 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:12.880 you possibly have? But today I mean, we have kindles 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.920 with potentially every book ever on it. When you start 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.200 factoring in the cloud, same deal with your with your music, 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.880 and then the the the internet is just a never 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:26.480 ending pit of random questions and facts. Well, isn't it 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:28.360 kind of like a feedback loop too? Right? I mean, 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:32.240 we're conditioning ourselves to make these twelve eleven twelve minute 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.520 breaks just because we've gotten used to it, and so 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:37.720 for you know, it was it was very hard to 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.400 do the research actually on this podcast and the next 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.360 one that we're about to do, because I really became 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:45.440 hyper aware of my own behavior. I don't know if 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.040 you felt that way when you were doing research. In 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:52.160 the various ways that we self interrupt or um or 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.200 go about things. It was it was kind of odd 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.720 to have all of this in mind as I was 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:02.320 doing the research and then watch my movements. Um. Alright, 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.720 So what Mark says and what other cognitive psychologists say, 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.600 is that what we're seeing is this attentional residue occur. 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.600 So it's not just the cognitive cost of associated with 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:18.160 context switching, something called resumption lag, or the potential for 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:22.800 errors something again we'll talk about the next podcast. UM 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.800 that the actual residue of the interruption of event working 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.280 memory impairment. That's we're talking about on a subsequent task. 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:34.560 When tasks are left unfinished and as we know task 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.160 that we haven't closed the loop on, we have become 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.600 problematic because we talked about holes in our head basically 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:42.840 in our in our in our minds, and our in 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.080 our perception of the world around us and our willpower right, 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:49.320 because we're spending a lot of mental energy on trying 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:53.160 to uh check off these boxes in our minds, and 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.680 we keep returning to the same open loops and if 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:58.960 we don't close them, then we're gonna sit there and 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:00.480 figure out, Okay, well how do I get to do 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:02.720 that when I also have five different things open on 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:04.640 my screen right now and I have to do these things. 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:07.800 And I think that comes back around to why multitasking 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.800 is emotionally pleasing while we're doing it, because we have 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.480 that feeling that we're closing like three or four loops 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.440 at once, even if we're barely closing those loops or 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:21.240 closing them really poorly, or closing them by just failing them, 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:22.920 you know, because because like, let's see, what do I 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.080 have to do today? I have to have to cook dinner, 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.320 finish that mix, watch that TV show that's kind of 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:30.160 the thing I want to do, and then I need 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:31.880 to study for that test. But look at me, I'm 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.000 doing all four at once. Super loop closer right, I 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:39.240 feel like the Judo master. Um So, time of day 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.880 is also a factor. It turns out that this is 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.840 the same study that Gloria Mark did that the time 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.680 of day is really important because the earlier it is, 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:56.160 the more someone is distracted. Really, and as as time 0:16:56.160 --> 0:17:00.000 creeps on, the less that they will self distract or 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.479 engage in other distractions. Uh. And she's saying this is uh, 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.880 possibly because we're more likely to get into the flow 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:10.520 of activity later in the day. Or you might say, hey, 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:13.280 only have X amount of hours last Oh yeah, that's true. 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.840 You get you get down to the deadline, you're gonna 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.760 be extremely motivated. Yeah, that's true. I have a little 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:23.320 uh sign in my in my cubicle list says and 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:25.960 I cannot say what that means in English, but it 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:30.159 basically says like, don't mess around, okay, focus. Yeah, And 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.320 for our Italian listeners, I do apologize for whatever Julie 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:35.560 just said. Yeah, And I apologize for the way that 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:39.639 I just pronounced it. All right, Well, there you go. 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:44.040 We uh dipped our toe into the world of multitasking, 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.000 and we'll be back to talk about that in a 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.000 future episode. Yeah, and we'll take a much deeper dive 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:50.879 into that. All right, Well, let's call the robe it 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:55.119 over to some quick listener mail. Alright, we heard from Tara. 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:57.679 Tara right soon and says, Hi, Robert and Julie, I 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:00.280 was listening to your Labyrinth episode and you mentioned, uh, 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.560 the Goofy, uh, the Goofy cartoons, the how Two cartoons, 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:05.080 And I just want to let you know that this 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.760 series of cartoons were made because at the time they 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.320 did not have a voice actor for Goofy, as the 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.040 man who was doing it had quit. I believe last 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:14.879 year I had the privilege to speak to the current 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.000 voice of Goofy, and these cartoons came up, uh, and 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.080 this was a way to keep Goofy's cartoons going without 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.520 having to worry about his voice. Keep up the great work, 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.719 smiley face. And we also heard heard from Josh Harding 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.000 who wrote in and Josh Harding says, Dear Robert and Julie, 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.479 I just listened to your Labyrinth episode and it reminded 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.000 me of a personal experience of mine. Last summer, I 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.480 spent some time volunteering with the nonprofit group Earthwatch, which 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.320 landed me in the Cloud Forest of Ecuador. The hike 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.960 up to the top was excruciating, even for someone who 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.760 is in fairly decent physical condition. Something like a two 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:49.480 thousand meter long trail with an eight hundred meter climb 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.440 and vira crawl. Correctly, that's about one and a fourth 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:54.919 mile long and a in a one half mile climb. 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:57.359 That may not seem like much, but consider that I 0:18:57.400 --> 0:18:59.679 live at sea level then he met humidity was one 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.360 of percent, and the climb started at about one mile 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.280 in elevation. Needless to say, I was out of breath 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:08.480 for a majority of the hike. When the group reached 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.600 the top, we were allowed to drop our gear and 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.600 explore the surrounding trails, which I did. I quickly found 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:16.480 myself on a winding path that was naturally carved away 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.240 by rainwater. There were no forks and it was a 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.280 gradual slope. The trail had walls of mud between one 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.960 and two ms tall that were covered in moss, ferns, 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.639 and orchids. Also, there was the occasional fallen tree overhanging 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.280 the path. As soon as I began walking down the path, 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:33.920 I felt a noticeable dipth in timvature. My heart rate 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.639 dropped considerably, and the cramping and my legs disappeared. Now, 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:39.840 thanks to your podcast, I can shed a little light 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.280 on what was happening to me. I walked that path 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:45.359 every afternoon, right after our work and before dinner. It 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:47.960 had the same effect every time. It is now my 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.600 go to place that I escaped to in my head 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:52.920 when I get stressed out at work. Thanks you guys 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.320 for an awesome podcast. Josh And included a really cool 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.919 picture to show that path through the cloud forest. I 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.840 like how that's something that he that experience of walking 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:05.640 that path is something that he invoked in his mind, 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.160 and then that that's an experience that he can revisit 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.439 again and again. Yeah, and it does remind me that 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.560 the nature walks um when you have a path, I mean, 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.760 it's essentially elabyrinth. You're guided on this path. You don't 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:18.720 have to worry about how I'm going to cut through 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.080 the forest because this is the pathway through the forest, 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:23.960 you know, and you're communing with nature in the whole process. 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.200 So there you go. If you don't have a true labyrinth, 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.520 you can always see to point out and apart like 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.360 setting cloud for us. All right, So, if you guys 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:36.440 would like to reach out to us see what we're 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:41.639 up to find out about upcoming podcast episodes, you can 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:43.359 find us on Facebook and you can find us on 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.200 tumbler um we are stuff to blow your mind on 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:47.960 both of those and on Twitter we go by the 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.240 handle blow the Mind, and those are all great things 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.080 to follow too. If you just want to support the show, 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.960