Does it depend on the definition of multi-tasking?
We take multiple courses in colleges, and we switch context all the time. I often worked on an assignment or reviewed coursework between two classes. I usually took no fewer than 5 classes in a semester, and a class usually had 4 to 6 assignments, 2 to 3 midterms, and a final. So we often had multiple assignments or tests due at the same day, which means we had to work on multiple tasks in a day too.
Similarly, we became more multi-tasked when we grew more senior. A design review now, a product planning meeting in the next hour, followed by an 1-on-1 to discuss a particular issue, and then a task to write a white paper. Again, multi tasking in my eyes. One does carve out some quite time for deep think, but the majority of the time will be broken into back-to-back meetings for multiple tasks.
I think the point is, it is suboptimal. You’d get better results if you minimised the contextual splits for natural moments of completion rather than unnatural moments of interrupt.
This holds true in computing theory, feeding 10 things to a single core in sequence is more efficient than feeding 10 things at once and having the CPU handle interrupts.
We take multiple courses in colleges, and we switch context all the time. I often worked on an assignment or reviewed coursework between two classes. I usually took no fewer than 5 classes in a semester, and a class usually had 4 to 6 assignments, 2 to 3 midterms, and a final. So we often had multiple assignments or tests due at the same day, which means we had to work on multiple tasks in a day too.
Similarly, we became more multi-tasked when we grew more senior. A design review now, a product planning meeting in the next hour, followed by an 1-on-1 to discuss a particular issue, and then a task to write a white paper. Again, multi tasking in my eyes. One does carve out some quite time for deep think, but the majority of the time will be broken into back-to-back meetings for multiple tasks.