A few days ago, my secretary went on leave. Before leaving, she was kind enough to ask me if I need a replacement for her as she will be off for two weeks. Initially, I liked the idea but then a thought struck me. Every now and then I see professional newsletters and weblogs crying out the importance of multitasking for a thriving professional life.

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So I decided that while my secretary is away, I’ll take this as an opportunity to try out multitasking, you know, to brush up my productivity skills. The very next day, I started implementing multitasking to my regular professional life. My day buzzed with phone calls, scheduling and re-scheduling, meetings and coffee-making, all on top of my routine tasks.

It was not long before I started to feel that this new routine is seriously impacting my productivity. What I am about to share with you in this piece of writing is the essence of my multitasking experience.

1. Loss of Focus

In the two weeks, there have been times when I had a really brilliant idea for a campaign design, but I was distracted to do another task, after which, I couldn’t recall what the idea was. I’ve heard of scientific facts about how the human mind woks best when it is focused on a single train of thoughts. And I was actually experiencing one myself.

When we try to focus on multiple unrelated tasks or thoughts, simultaneously (like regular multitasking), it becomes difficult to regain focus and remember where we left off in each of those tasks.

There are often projects or jobs that need your special focus and concentration – more than the regular ones – but when you are needed elsewhere, your mind subconciously shift your focus onto other tasks. And you end up frustrated, like me.

Recommended Reading: 5 Ways To Keep Yourself Focused At Work

2. Low Grade Efficiency

It is a common misconception that multitasking increases your efficiency. In fact, you tend to just skim through the tasks to get more done. This will slow down your productivity level, especially with tasks that require brainstorming and a proper thought process.

Frequent multitasking affects your efficiency like shutting down and restarting the CPU affects the efficiency of your computer and the work it is doing.

If you muster up your focus for one task and do it with all your mind and heart, no matter how small or insignificant the task is, it can prove to be more productive to yourself and your employer/client. Having your focus scattered across too many things, may lead you to mess up real important things like deadlines, important meetings and scheduled tasks.

3. Brain Drain

Brainstorming, analytical thinking, problem solving and creativity are associated with every professional’s life. These terms are also especially important for writers, designers and other creative professionals.

However, multitasking has often proved to be just the right poison for these brain-involving activities.

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Professionals, who flip between jobs and tasks more frequently, experience a brain drain in terms of analytical and creative thinking process. Moreover, in a human mind, creative thoughts, ideas and solutions have a very short shelf-life, and they have a good tendency to vanish as quickly just as how they pop up in your mind unannounced.

Once two or more thoughts leave your mind without being pondered upon, your mind becomes more prone to a creative block or brain drain for a long time.

Replenish your Creativity with our articles on creativity.

4. The Time-Saving Paradox

Many professionals are of the view that doing a number of tasks concurrently saves you a lot of time and thus makes you ‘efficient’. Well, there is another side of the story which many of us tend to overlook, as in overlooking human errors.

It is a matter of common sense that when you are working on multiple tasks and one task becomes the cause of distraction for the other, there is a higher chance of you messing up, and both tasks (or more) are affected. The thing with mistakes is that it needs rectifying. And fixing a mistake takes time.

So basically, you are saving up on your time (by multitasking) to fix the problems created (while multitasking).

Check out: 50 Time Saving Firefox Add-Ons

5. Anxiety and Stress

Another area you won’t expect to be affected by multitasking is your physical and mental health (cue anxiety and stress). Multitasking and frequent interruptions caused by it are sources of stress that can have a notable impact on your mind and body. It is a common fact that whenever demands exceed abilities, stress is bound to follow.

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Over time, the stress of multitasking may even become dangerous when fatigue and mental fogginess becomes more prominent, and both productivity and passion for work decline. In the kind of work culture we have developed in today’s world, multitasking seems inevitable, even viewed as an advantage when it comes to job-seeking.

However, according to repeated research and my own personal experience, multitasking is not only absurd, it is counterproductive as well.

More: 8 Tips To Simplify Your Work Life

To Conclude

By writing this article I am not at all suggesting that multitasking is not possible for the human mind. I would rather say that although we can always add one more ball to our juggling act, every time you multitask, you have less attention for creative thought and memories.

No matter how demanding your job is, do not let multitasking take a heavy toll on your work, or on you.

Take a look at: Productivity Tips For Freelance Web Designers

Geeks are becoming the new cool. It could be because geeks are making significant impact in a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on information technology. The world has changed; and so will the view we have towards geeks in general.

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What makes a "geek"? Well, they have an eccentric devotion to a particular interest (the most common one now would be tech) and that’s one of the nicer definitions. While back in the 80′s, we won’t want to be labeled as a geek – since it was used interchangeably with "nerd", which is still not very desirable in today’s standards – most Web users won’t mind the term now.

What they still would mind is probably dating one, if the dress style of the people on stage at Apple’s WWDC or Google I/O is anything to fall back on.

Read Also: 8 Tell-Tale Signs You’re A Geek

Nonetheless, all is not lost because we have here 20 good reasons why you should consider giving geeks a chance since they are…

1. Committed

To be a geek, you have to be obsessed with something to qualify. Regardless of what geeks are obsessed with, you can’t deny that their level of loyalty exceeds beyond the extraordinary.

A tech gadget, an operating system, comic book superheroes, a sci-fi fantasy realm, a gaming portal, you name it, geeks eat, sleep and breathed it. Imagine that level of commitment your partner. You’d be set for life.

2. Problem-Solvers

Geeks love to solve problems; it gives them an adrenaline rush when they’re beating the final boss in their favorite video games or troubleshooting their operating system.

The thrill is in the challenge. And to add to point #1, when they get into it, they can obsess over a bug in the system that they spend hours on it without stopping for a break.

It’s not a healthy way to approach a problem, but it sure gives you the results you want, especially when it comes to tech support.

(Image Source: Chris Patterson )

3. Perfectionists

Geeks are perfectionistas; they do research, very thorough ones before they even start asking questions. And you can see that once they are committed, they are devoted to finding the best and most complete solution to any kind of problem there is, out there.

They’d probably be better at answering, "you know what your problem is?" than you are, ending any possible argument before they are even started.

4. Appreciative

Having spent a significant amount of their life being ostracized by social circles and picked on by bullies, geeks naturally appreciate the fact that you’ve chose them as their significant other.

They’re especially grateful that you’ve seen in him what others couldn’t.

When we’re in a relationship, we definitely want the other party to be appreciative of us and not take us for granted, so this is definitely a win-win relationship.

5. Sweet & Sensitive

Years of judgments, intimidation and exclusion by their peers for been different have turned the geeks into either angry adults or sensitive beings. If you’ve met the latter, you’re in luck.

These geeks are more sensitive than your average Joe because they know what it’s like to have a hard day. They’re more than willing to listen to your rants and do sweet things for you to cheer you up after a terrible day at work.

6. Not Crazy Over Sports

Unlike most other guys, geeks are less likely to be involved in sports. Given their natural flair and passion for more intellectual and tech-related stuff, it’s not surprisingly to find that they devote lesser time to sports in their early years.

This is great news for you ladies since you don’t have to tolerate an all-guys sports night or complain about your boyfriend or husband disappearing on you when a sports tournament is playing.

7. Keen Learners

The inquisitive mind of geeks is probably one of the things that set them apart from the rest of us. They are always keen to learn new things.

When they are faced with something they don’t really know how to handle, they learn and adapt. In other words, being with a geek is to be with someone who doesn’t just quit when the going gets tough, they learn and become more adept at it. This applies to a relationship as well, where patience and compromise is key to a healthy relationship.

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8. Intelligent

This one is a given. Geeks are intelligent people who know stuff, inside out. When they don’t know, they are keen to learn. They’ve adopted such a mentality since young and have thus amassed so much knowledge inside their brain, all ready to share with others.

Sticking around with a geek will definitely open up your mind but only if you share the same passion for the same things.

9. Passionate

See the way geeks adore their superhero action figures, and how much time they can spent building their collection, reading about their programming language or rewatching their favorite fantasy movies?

They are a passionate bunch who would give all their time and effort to the thing that has captured their hearts.

10. Patient

The amount of patience they have is unmatched. How else can they spent months leveling-up their RPG characters, knowing every detail of their backstory or plotting the best way to take down the final boss?

And when they are done, they go at it again! If that isn’t character-building, I’m not sure what is.

11. Single & Available

The sad news for geeks is that they’re underrated in the dating world, but the great news for you is that there are so many of them out there. And it’s not that they are not lovable. Most of the time, they just don’t have the time or the confidence to go for girls they like.

If you are approached by one, and you brush them off just because they are a geek, you’re going to miss out.

12. Successful

Bill Gates, one of the richest, most successful and powerful technopreneurs in the world… was a geek who changed the world through the Microsoft Corporation. If a successful partner is what you’re looking for, most geeks would make the cut.

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13. Introspective

Geeks are thinkers. You will have the most engaging and enlightening conversations with them that is every-changing, ever-expanding because they never stop learning. And they’d surely have the best bits kept for last.

They will make you learn to love them and their obsessions, and eventually, they’ll convert you to love what they love.

14. Accepting

They aren’t the type who will be particular about how well you dress, because geeks themselves don’t put too much emphasis on their appearance too! In that sense, you can dress comfortably without feeling upstaged.

These are the ones who stay true to who they are and what they love, so they are less likely to judge you harshly for being yourself as a unique individual.

15. Not Keen On Mind Games

Geeks like things to be logical and straightforward, especially when it comes to the seemingly elusive world of dating. Hidden messages and guessing games are not high on their list of things to care about.

As a result, they are more forthcoming when socializing and may expect others to do the same as well. Why waste time guessing when you can come right out and say it.

16. Becoming More Popular

Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates etc are the top geeks of our time. There will be more. Who knows if the geek you are dating now is the next biggest tech headline of the century?

17. Willing to Give In

One reason why geeks are sweet and sensitive is that they know when and how to give in to their partners. When you have a bad day and just want to complain to someone about everything that goes wrong in life, they’re here to listen to you.

And even if you happen to be blaming them for the cause of everything gone wrong, they’d give in than risk raising an argument, just to make you feel better.

18. Able to Pay Attention to Details

Given their dedication to what they love and their intelligence, geeks can be very attentive to small details. This is what makes them sensitive in matters of the heart.

One of their best skills is that they remember important days such as your birthdays and anniversaries, because nothing gets past them.

19. Resourceful

Yeah, we all know our way around the Internet, or at least we think we do. But geeks, they know the real deal for underground information. It’s part of the reason why they are always on the Internet, reading and amassing information.

Got a problem? Give them 5 minutes, and they’d locate 5 different solutions for you. If it has to with their prime obsession, they’d probably give you 10 off the top fo their heads!

20. Authentic People

Geeks are true to themselves. They’d rather be unpopular and be who they really are than to sell themselves out to be approved by others. They pursue what they love with passion and dedication.

They can also inspire you to stay true to who you are. In that sense, dating a geek makes you a more courageous person.

Conclusion

If you do decide to share your life with a geek, be prepared to really indulge yourself into his passion, whatever that passion may be. This will seep into your life together, making you both honorary fans for life. One thing is for sure, the wedding will be a blast!

How many tech startups do you know is worth billions of dollars? This infographic by Staff.com lists 12 startups (since 2004) that have reached the billion-dollar worth – Instagram, Evernote, Box, Airbnb, Zynga, Spotify, HomeAway, Square, Groupon, Dropbox, Workday, Twitter and Facebook.

The brief but telling infographic also reveals a few vital statistics of the companies, for instance, have you ever wondered how much capital each of these companies raised in the start to get them where they are today? Guess which of the 13 startups currently employs the most number of employees and which, the least? Even more interesting is how much is Instagram now worth?

Have a look – some of the numbers may surprise you.