The dubious benefits of multitasking

Those who multitask the most tend to be the worst at it, say researchers at Stanford University: “Multitaskers are more easily distracted and less able to ignore irrelevant information than people who do less multitasking.” No surprise. As Francis Dojun Cook wrote, doing one thing at a time is best:

It is wonderful to learn to do one thing at a time. When we do formal zazen, we just sit; this means we do not add to the sitting any judgments such as how wonderful it is to do zazen, or how badly we are doing at it. We just sit. When we wash the dishes, we just wash dishes; when we drive on the highway, we just drive. When pain comes, there is just pain, and when pleasure comes, there is just pleasure. A Buddha is someone who is totally at one with his experience at every moment.