What is Multi-Tasking

My wife and I were having a discussion last night about what the true definition of "Multi-Tasking" is....

You always see in employment ads or interviews that multi-tasking is essential skill wanted by employers.

So I was curious...what is your definition of multi-tasking???

If an employer asked "How are you at multi-tasking?"...what would your answer be?

good question.
i think its how many task u can do at same time........ in which biologically, women are very good!

i wud say i have leanred this art too!
at home, i can read newspaper, watch TV, eat snacks and talk on phone at same time.

at office, i chat, make it look that i m working, drink coffee, check mail simultaneously

am i getting the job Memnoch

but are you actively paying attention to each thing all at the same time?

Are you really reading the news paper and watching TV and eating and talking on the phone all at the same time?

Or are you really just shifting your attention back and forth between them? Focusing on one thing for a moment, then the next, etc...

yeah, Micky, and you are getting fired at the same time..
multi-tasking hiring!

that'll be the right answer
i think i lost my job

i think it wont b possible to do or concentrate on all tasks at one time......... human brain in not a pentium processor!!
or is it possible??

man........... this happens all the time

Exactly...

The dictionary defines multitasking as:

Computers are perfectly capable of performing multiple tasks at once, due to their multi-threaded architecture.

But humans aren't, so humans can't truly perform multitasking, at least not in the context of how it's defined.

I think in the human context of it, multitasking is really the ability to manage multiple tasks, knowing where you are in the process of those tasks, so you can easily go back and forth between them and pickup or resume exactly where you left off, as it you never stopped working on it.

So I think a better definition of multitasking, at least in how the term applies to people, is really not the ability to perform multiple tasks at once, but the ability to manage multiple tasks and shift your attention between them without losing focus of where you left off, so you can continue the task as if you never stopped in the first place.

That's exactly what multi-tasking is...

Actually, the only definition for the term applies to computers (see above). And it's defined as performing multiple tasks simutaneously.
Not shifting attention from one task to another.

yes, thats what i studied about micro-processors!!
they can multi-task and we humans can manage multi-task without being actually multi-tasking!

My point of this thread was to shed some light on the actual definition of the term as it applies to people.

Most people will say the definition of mutitasking is performing multiple tasks at once, which is correct.

But when the term applies to a person, the definition isn't correct, because humans aren't capable of performing multiple tasks using concentrative effort. We focus on one task at a time.

Sure you can do multiple tasks at once, such as breathing, sitting, reading.

But of all of these tasks, only one requires a concentrated effort to perform (reading). the other two don't require any actual concentrated effort.

So humans really aren't capable of performing multitasking by its definition, as the human brain isn't capable of concentrating on more than one (concentrated effort) task at a time.

I asked this question in two interviews last week.

I asked "Can you define multitasking and how well you think you are at it?"

I got two different answers, but both were about doing the multiple things at once.