On Labor Day, try doing one thing at a time

Ever envy those folks who can type a term paper on their computer while listening to their iPod and chatting on their cell phone? Or who can Skype on their desktop, Google on their laptop and game on their Xbox, all at the same time?

You might want to revise that opinion.

In a vindication of sorts for old-fashioned single-mindedness — and the fuddy-duddies who practice it — a new study from Stanford University throws doubt on the efficiency of multitasking.

It seems that big multitaskers are more easily distracted than people who do less multitasking.

Having trained themselves to grab incoming information from all sorts of sources, they also have trouble filtering out information that’s irrelevant.

“The huge finding is, the more media people use the worse they are at using any media. We were totally shocked,” Clifford Nass, a professor at Stanford’s communications department, told the Associated Press.

And it’s not like researchers targeted multitasking neophytes. They studied college undergrads, dividing them into low- and high-multitasking groups and then presenting them with a series of tests.

High-multitaskers could not focus as well and could not organize information as well as the low-multitaskers. They couldn’t even switch from task to task as well —and task switching, said the scientists, is virtually the definition of multitasking. The only category in which the high-multitaskers equaled the low-multitasking group was in memory recall.

What scientists don’t yet know is whether multitasking causes these problems or whether people who already lack focus and are highly distractible simply gravitate more easily to multitasking.

“Is multitasking causing them to be lousy at multitasking, or is their lousiness at multitasking causing them to be multitaskers?” said Mr. Nass. “Is it born or learned?”

The answers are not just matters of curiosity. Multitasking is already linked to car crashes, train wrecks and equipment accidents. (In fact, the research was partially funded by grants from auto manufacturers.)

Several states have banned the use of cell phones while driving, and Virginia recently has joined those that ban texting while driving.

The efficiency of multitasking — or lack thereof — not only has implications for students studying coherently and drivers operating vehicles safely, but also in more general workplace contexts. With layoffs shrinking workforces and remaining employees expected to take on a higher quantity of tasks, the quality of their efforts may deteriorate.

Consider that on this Labor Day.