Wednesday, March 9, 2011

How People Multitask Effectively on the Web

Many people multitask. The old adage states that females are usually significantly better at multitasking than men yet new research into multitasking demonstrates that young generations spend lots of time multitasking. This is specifically a result of how modern society and technology has evolved. Several things are now available at the same time: listening to music while working on work, talking on the telephone while cooking etc. It should be taken into account that numerous people consider multitasking to be negative and it leads to tasks not being completed to the highest final results. Indeed, scientists argue that it is actually not possible to totally concentrate on two or more things at once. This is why most people normally do not provide their complete attention if you try and talk to them whilst they are engaging in something else. Whilst it might feel impolite, it is actually a perfectly genuine part of being human.

Nevertheless, all of this doesn't necessarily negate the fact modern society has grown progressively more arduous and people have to undertake increasingly more responsibilities. Every person now has familial commitments to handle with job responsibilities and also try to fit in time for themselves. It is not surprising that everyone is multitasking more and more as a result. Recent research has shown that multitaskers successfully obtain extra time from their day. They do this by doing a couple of things at a time (such as, watching television while browsing the web).

The phrase "multitask" derives actually from technology and computers. Computer engineers created the word when referring to the way in which computers manage to process more than one application at a time and it has subsequently spread to common lexicon. Nevertheless, people can still look at multitasking relative to technology and computers, and more specifically the interaction of person and computer.

Increasingly more tasks are being finished online and with computers. Many work places attempt to lower the quantity of un-recycled waste and some places follow a no print rule. It is now possible to work totally with a computer or through the Internet. People do not even need to have a fixed office to work - why not buy a laptop and remotely work no matter where you are? As technology has developed and been adopted to accomplish a lot more, lots of people are required to make use of computers to carry out multiple tasks at any one time.

Multitasking with a PC is essentially quite straightforward. Anyone can create a document even while browsing the Internet. On the other hand, as you are limited to computer screen size you may well find that you can only view so much. Owning more than just one monitor can easily significantly help. Having two screens significantly improves work efficiency, however, when using more than two there is negligible difference and you might not want to spend more money on it.

GUIs (graphical user interfaces - the way you interact with computer systems and operating systems compared to line commands in DOS) have become highly designed around multitasking. With most computers you have a task bar at the bottom of the screen where all the windows and programs have. You can switch them with a click of your computer mouse or using keyboard shortcuts. Furthermore, web browsers are now allowing you to multitask. Instead of having multiple windows open when you need to browse more than one page, you can use tab browsing to quickly go between several different pages.

Furthermore, there are websites that you can use to multitask with the web more effectively. Bookmark managers (allowing you to import your bookmarks and save all your bookmarks), password managers (allowing you to save your passwords) and personalized homepages (allowing you to organize your online life more efficiently). There are lots of examples of such services but there are not as many examples of applications that allow you to do all these at any one time. Using a service which does allows you to multitask and organize your online life all from one place. Even more so, as they are online you can access them from anywhere in the world and at any time.

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