Academic

Multitasking is seductive. Especially if you have a Droid or an iPad. But over the course of time and many personal experiments, I have concluded that focus is the superior path to productivity. It turns out there was even more to it (NYT):

While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress.

And scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. In other words, this is also your brain off computers.

The story in the NYT features a couple that appears habitually distracted. They begin a project, but they can't stick with it, so they flit from one thing to the next like an absent-minded professor. The root of the problem, we are told, is multitasking: "multitaskers seem more sensitive than non-multitaskers to incoming information."

I could imagine this being a good thing. We want people to be sensitive to new information. Remember Keynes' famous quip, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" Unfortunately, the point is not just that multitaskers become more sensitive to new information, but that they impair their ability to filter out irrelevant information.

Does this research have any potential applications to the study and practice of law? 

A couple of years ago, I spoke to a group of undergraduates about law school preparation. One of them asked me what aspect of law school required the biggest adjustment for most students. Easy: attention to relevant detail. 

Most law students are in the habit of reading for plot, and the close study of judicial opinions surprises them. Of course, after they experience the trauma of missing an obvious point in the first case or two, they adapt by trying to attend to all of the details. We hope that eventually they become experts in sorting the relevant details from the irrelevant details, though developing this skill is a long process for many people.

If multitasking impairs one's ability to filter out irrelevant information -- not just while multitasking but in other times, too -- will it make the training of future lawyers more difficult? Will it make the practice of law even more stressful?