By Dave Crenshaw
(Reviewed by Kevin Knebl)

This short book is a great story about something that many of us deal with all the time. In today’s busy world, we are led to believe that we can do more than one thing at a time. We are also led to believe that we can do these things effectively. If I can be so bold . . . where’s the evidence? Multitasking makes us less productive, costs us time, and generally leads us to feel that we’ll never catch up.
 
Crenshaw tells the story of Phil, who is a business consultant, and Helen, who is like many of us. Helen is working all the time and is overwhelmed with her responsibilities (although she’d probably never admit it to anyone except Phil).

Phil explains the concept of “switchtasking.” We tend to believe that we can do more than one thing at a time, but this has been disproved. The human mind can consciously concentrate on only one thing at a time. Switchtasking is the process of switching between tasks. This is what we are really doing when we think that we are multitasking. Switchtasking is very costly. It is a less effective and less efficient way to get things done.
 
Crenshaw’s book is a fast read, and a good message underlies the interesting modern story. He paints a good tale that most people in business will intimately relate to. There were times when I felt that Crenshaw was reading over my shoulder. He intersperses quotes on multitasking from studies and business publications throughout the book.