Staying Sharp: A Multitasker’s Glossary

A Multitasker’s Glossary

Just as the arrival of automobiles ultimately brought us words like rubbernecking, gridlock and road rage, the information age demands new terms for the behavior it induces. So says psychiatrist Edward Hallowell in a forthcoming book, CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap–Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD (Ballantine Books; 246 pages). Here’s a sampler of Hallowell’s new words for new times:

screen sucking Wasting time online long after you have finished what you signed on to do. Example: “I’d be done with that job if I hadn’t got caught up screen sucking.”

frazzing Frantic, ineffective multitasking, typically with the delusion that you are getting a lot done. The quality of the work, however, is poor

pizzled How you feel when someone you’re with pulls out a cell phone or BlackBerry and uses it without an explanation or apology. A cross between p_____ off and puzzled

doomdart The internal distraction of a forgotten task that pops into your mind when you are doing something else. A side effect of frazzing

ADAPTED WITH PERMISSION FROM BALLANTINE BOOKS, AN IMPRINT OF THE RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP, A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE, INC. TO BE PUBLISHED IN APRIL 2006