Multi Tasking -Part: 1 - What is Multi Tasking?

This is something that all of us will be performing everyday, without being aware of the same. This concept is important, because it has enormous value in Business & Organizational Management. In simple terms it is the technique of doing a number of things by a person at the same time. By way of an example, it may be stated that I need to discuss an important matter with a friend of mine, but I also have to go to a nearby place urgently. My obliging friend understands my priorities and he willingly agrees to accompany me to the place I want to go. We both walk the distance, while I also seriously discuss the point, which I wanted to share with him. In this manner I have been able to perform two tasks at the same time, or I can say simultaneously. These are (1) moving to the place I wanted to go and (2) discussing a subject with a friend. All works, however, can not be easily combined like this for joint execution. For example, it is possible to walk and talk, but it is not possible for two persons to run and talk simultaneously. But when speed is important, we have the choice to travel by a fast moving vehicle together and do the discussion during the travel inside the vehicle (like an automobile or train). The case of business dinners and business lunches are example of both dining and informally discussing important business projects in an amicable frame of mind by the persons participating. We may conveniently define multi-tasking as the concurrent execution of a number of tasks by a person simultaneously at a stretch.

This is because of the fact that our time is limited, while our desire for doing things or the responsibility accepted for executing task places a huge burden for doing several things within a particular time frame. Our failure to perform even one single small job may lead to an adverse result. We have to plan our time utilization (Time use Management) and balance our unlimited need for time-use with its limited availability. Time is non-replaceable and non-renewable. A day gone is gone forever; it will not come back. In business and management, every day and every hour is an opportunity. The business manager can gainfully use the day or hour in taking quick decisions on a number of business issues and arrange for their execution. But if the hour or day is spent without is spent action or with partial action, there is time loss or time over run. The business Project is delayed, leading to losses or cost overruns. The business manager, if he is time conscious and result conscious, has to look to a number of urgent matters in quick sequence or in combination, to be effective and stay in a competitive environment.

Every person can perform a minimum of 3 tasks at a time, but the average capacity of human beings is rated as 5. The theory is that man is capable of multi-tasking from 5-plus 2, to 5-minus 2 tasks at a time. In other words the very smart person is capable of executing seven jobs at a time. At this level one needs to have a keen observation capacity and sharp and ever-alert memory, which not all individuals are endowed with. The general belief is that with efficiency a person can only perform 3 tasks at a time. When person tries to perform more than three tasks, it is possible that the total time taken for performing the multiple tasks is more than the aggregate time needed for performing them individually. Training and practice leads to skill development in any category of activity or activities and persons with devoted mind and motivated zeal eventually acquires the skill to perform a number of jobs together with ease. The inherent capacity of the human body for multi-tasking is enormous, since the various systems of the human body (like the heart, the lungs, the digestive system, the nervous system, the senses organs etc.) are able to function always in perfect harmony and in total unison. But the body operates the system, as self-execution systems, outside the purview of human cognition (understanding). A person through his own mental-will cannot cause his heart to perform slowly or speedily. It is an automatic adjustment beyond the control of his purview. But the external capacity of man for physical multi-tasking is limited as stated earlier.

The human brain controls the body. The brain can given multiple command to the different systems and limbs of the body and make them work simultaneously. Thus while walking, the feet moves the body of the man, while the eyes observe the path and guides the feet to walk in the correct direction/route. Our eyes, our ears, our mouth, hands and feet can operate simultaneously and perform different tasks. Same limb can also perform multiple tasks, by the process known as time-sharing or time slicing. A short span of time, say one tenth of a minute (6 seconds) can be sliced into multiple parts (let us say slice A, B & C). The hands perform task 'A' in the first two seconds, switch to task 'B' in the next 2 seconds and task "C" in the last two seconds. It shifts back to task 'A' again in the beginning of the 7th second, which it had left at the end of the 2nd second. Thus in a period of one minute, each job is attended 10 times and in this process, each individual task will appear to be continuously attended.

This is a brain storming intellectual exercise and an expertise developed by the philosopher, who performs it. The philosopher is sitting in a hall, and a person sitting opposite to him is talking and asking questions on different subjects, which the philosopher answers and also retains in his memory the number of questions that were asked to him in total. This is the first task. Some persons were entering the hall now and then and some were leaving the hall. While attr5ending to the first task mentioned above, the philosopher is also observing the number of persons entering the hall, and accumulating and retaining in his memory the aggregate number of persons that have entered the hall. When the first man enters number 1, and when the second enter number 2 etc. This is the second task. Similarly, the third task is performed with reference the persons leaving the hall. In between an Attender goes and rings a bell now and then. As the 4th task the philosopher notes the number of times the bell was rung by the Attender. Behind the philosopher another person, is throwing on his back small objects (like a peanut). The philosopher also calculates and retains in his memory the number of times the tiny article was thrown on his back. This is the 5th task. There are a number of lights. All are switched on. Someone switches off one particular light and again switches on the same. This he repeats this now and then. The philosopher notes the number of times the light is switched off. This is the 6th task. Similarly a fan in the hall is being switched off and on by another person and as the 7th task the philosopher notes the number of times the fan is switched off. In the hall water is offered to the people sitting by a water boy carrying water glasses. Some persons accept the water, while others do not. As the 8th task the philosopher notes the number of persons, who had accepted water. This exercise goes on for a minimum of 15 minutes. Depending on the expertise developed by the philosopher it may extend even up to half and hour. At the beginning of this performance 8 judges were appointed, from amongst the persons sitting in the hall to individually observe and note the number of times each one of the above 8 tasks were performed. At the end of the exercise the philosopher is given a piece of paper listing the eight tasks serially. He enters the number of times each task occurred. Similarly each one of the judges, who had noted the number of times each task had occurred notes this information one by one in another list. Both lists are compared to verify the accuracy of the listing by the philosopher. And the expert philosopher never loses this game. This philosopher has developed this rare accomplishment by years of self-control and meditation with practice. Even today this feat is being performed by certain Jain philosophers (disciples of a particular Jain monk 'Acharya Tulsi', who has expounded the 'Anuvrat' philosophy).

Before the Industrial Revolution, multi tasking was practised in the physical performance of the job. One artisan was attending to the creation of a product in its total shape. It is not doing a job, but the creating of a full product.

The concept of Division of Labour came with the Industrial revolution. Adam Smith proved that a person working alone could produce 20 pins per day. But if the process of manufacturing a pin is divided into 3 specific jobs, and three persons are put on the job, each to carry out one particular process, together they can produce 500 pins per day. Division of labour in fact is the opposite of multi-tasking. Simple hand tools came to be replaced by complex machinery, which in turn gave place-automated equipment. In the pre industrial revolution era, it was the physical burden for multi-tasking, but since business ventures were small and carried by a single person or his family, there was no management burden for running the business. Business Management consisted of taking simple decisions by a single person in a routine manner.