The Myth of Multitasking
Christine Rosen
In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: “There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one’s time; it was a mark of intelligence. “This steady and undissipated attention to one object, is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.”
Christine Rosen is a senior editor of The New Atlantis and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
You can find this article online at: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking
Christine Rosen
In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: “There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one’s time; it was a mark of intelligence. “This steady and undissipated attention to one object, is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.”
Christine Rosen is a senior editor of The New Atlantis and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
You can find this article online at: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking
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