100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People

PEOPLE CAN’T ACTUALLY MULTITASK

I know it’s popular to think that you are multitasking, but the research is clear: People can’t actually multitask. For many years, psychology research has shown that people can attend to only one task at a time. You can only think about one thing at a time. You can only conduct one mental activity at a time. So you can talk, or you can read. You can read, or you can type. You can listen, or you can read—one thing at a time. We are pretty good at switching back and forth quickly, so we think we are multitasking, but in reality we are not.

People Don’t Multitask—They Task-Switch

The term multitasking is a misnomer. People can’t actually do more than one task at a time. Instead, we switch tasks. So the term researchers use is “task switching.” There has been a lot of research on task switching. Here’s what we know from that research:

Task switching is “expensive”—it takes more time to get tasks completed if you switch between them than if you do them one at a time.
You make more errors when you switch than when you do one task at a time.
If the tasks are complex, then these time and error penalties increase.
Each task switch might waste only 1/10th of a second, but if you do a lot of switching in a day it can add up to a loss of 40 percent of your productivity.
Task switching involves several parts of your brain. Brain scans during task switching show activity in four major areas: The prefrontal cortex is involved in shifting and focusing your attention and in selecting which task to do when; the posterior parietal lobe activates rules for each task you switch to; the anterior cingulate gyrus monitors errors; and the premotor cortex prepares you to move in some way (Meyer, et al., 1997 and 1998).

Research has uncovered one possible exception: If you are doing a physical task that you have done very, very often and are very good at, then you can do that physical task while you are doing a mental task. So if you are an adult and you have learned to walk, then you can walk and talk at the same time. Well, maybe. Even walking and talking doesn’t always work very well. A study by Ira Hyman (2009) showed that people talking on cell phones while walking ran into people (literally) more often and didn’t notice what was around them. The researchers had someone in a clown suit ride by on a unicycle. The people talking on a cell phone were much less likely to notice or remember the clown.

Dealing With Multitaskers During Your Presentation

Since people can’t really multitask, there is very little that people can be doing and also be listening to you. If someone is taking notes by hand while you are talking, that is a task switch that can be accommodated fairly well; likewise with taking notes on a computer. However, if people are reading or sending emails or texts while you are talking, then chances are they aren’t listening (even when they say they can multitask just fine).

What To Do About Handouts

If you provide a copy of your slides as a handout during your presentation, it is likely that people will start reading ahead and stop listening to you. This is one of many reasons not to have slides with lots of text either for your presentation at the front of the room or on handouts. But people often want something to reference after the presentation, and they also like having something to take notes on. Here are some ideas for how to handle handouts:

Provide a separate document that is a summary of your points. If it’s short (one or two pages), you can hand it out before, during, or right after the presentation. If it’s more than a few pages, then don’t hand it out before or during the presentation. Save it for the end, post it online, or do both.
Provide a Web page that contains more information, and give people the URL after the presentation.
Upload a slideshare of your presentation to a Web site or to www.slideshare. net. Let people know that you are going to do this at the beginning of the talk, and then give them the URL at the end of the talk or email it to them.
If you do not provide a paper summary, then consider having paper and pens or pencils handy in case people want to take notes.

Takeaways

People will tell you they can multitask, but they actually can’t.
People can take notes by hand or computer while listening to your presentation, but not much else.
Although telling people they can’t text or use computers during your presentation will probably backfire, encourage people in your session to just do one thing—listen to you.
Letting people know that you are providing reference materials after the talk will help them relax, forgo extensive note-taking, and therefore pay more attention to you.

THE MIND WANDERS 30 PERCENT OF THE TIME

You are sitting in a conference room listening to one of your colleagues give a presentation on a project, and you realize that instead of listening you are thinking about an email you forgot to send. Your mind wandered.
Mind-wandering is similar to, but not the same thing, as daydreaming. Psychologists use the term daydreaming to refer to any stray thoughts, fantasies, or stories you imagine; for example, winning the lottery or being a famous celebrity. The term mind-wandering is more specific and refers to when you are doing one task and then fade into thinking about something that is not related to that task.

Mind-Wandering Is Very Common

People underestimate mind-wandering; according to Jonathan Schooler of the University of California, Santa Barbara, people think their minds wander 10 percent of the time, when it is actually much more. During normal, everyday activities, your mind is wandering up to 30 percent of the time, and in some cases (for instance, when driving on an uncrowded highway), it might be as high as 70 percent.

How To Rein In Wandering Minds

You can’t stop all mind-wandering, but you can decrease the frequency with which it occurs. The better a presenter you are, the more engaging your presentation is. The more you pay attention to the guidelines in this chapter (for example, the 7–10 minute rule), the less likely your audience’s minds will wander. The chapters “How People React to You” and “How to Craft Your Presentation” will give you more ideas and suggestions.

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