Years ago, while attending a leadership development program, I took a test that I later learned had once been used by the military to identify potential expert bombardiers. Test takers were presented with a page of diagrams. In the upper left hand corner of the page was one oddly configured shape. In a very limited amount of time, participants were to look through all of the diagrams, find the oddly configured shape, and circle it. The exercise was, in essence, an abstract version of “Where’s Elmo.”

 

Program instructors later explained that the test helped to identify those participants who possessed an extreme ability to focus. (This was a huge advantage to earlier generations of bombardiers, who were expected to find targets, fly planes, and evade enemy flyers all at the same time.) I was not particularly surprised to learn that this is among my stronger suits. In fact, my focus tends to become so intense that I find it extremely difficult to change a particular train of thought. This is one of the reasons that I always turn off my BlackBerry while I drive. I am seemingly incapable of focusing on traffic and an important conversation at the same time.

 

While I know my ability to focus has its benefits, I have long envied those who are seemingly just as comfortable with multitasking—The people who can answer a phone, type an e-mail, and simultaneously respond to a hand signal from a client across the room. A recent study, however, suggests that multitasking may not produce the best results.  

 

In a series of findings published in the August 24^th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of Stanford researchers found, “Multitaskers were just lousy at everything.” Among the problems multitaskers experience are the following: They don’t focus particularly well; they are more easily distracted; and they are weaker at moving from one task to another and at organizing the information they have.

 

Some have speculated that the ubiquity of technology has made the Millennial generation completely comfortable with multitasking. Those who manage this generation should carefully encourage Millennials to set aside periods of time for singularly focused work.