The blurring line between the office and the driver's seat can be literally driving you to distraction. Have you ever noticed someone, ahead of you in traffic, driving in an unsteady manner? Chances are they are multitasking---driving, reading something (like a telephone number), dialing a cell phone and/or engaged in an important conversation.
"When tasks are performed, and especially multiple tasks," David E. Meyer, a mathematical and cognitive psychologist at the University of Michigan, says, "decisions have to be made by your mind's CEO about which of the resources are going to get used." Driving while using a cellular phone is a dangerous example of multitasking, he adds, because it requires 'too many of exactly the same resources, mental and physical.' Seconds lost switching between tasks could be the time needed to avoid danger.
The Wall Street Journal reports that up to 30 percent of national crashes are caused by driver distractions that include mobile communication devices. Already, cell phones, in-car electronics and radio-CD systems represent the leading cause of inattention in crashes that killed 6,516 Californians and injured 413,913. That is why many organizations, worried about potential liability, have implemented restrictions on employee use of cell phones while driving and talking.
For more information on the impact of multitasking in the workplace, go to: http://home.att.net/~coachthee/Archives/integrateeverything.html