After I finished writing my last blog about multitasking, I headed off to the shower to get cleaned up for the day. As I showered, I realized that I made the fatal mistake of lumping all multitasking into one big pile, which isn’t right.
First off, multitasking lends itself quite well to mundane tasks that do not require any brainpower to complete. As some of you know, I am LDS, which means twice a year I get to stay home for the weekend (woot!) and listen to talks given by the head people in the Church via the radio, Internet, or TV. I personally listen to it through the radio, so it requires my mind to be engaged, but doesn’t use the rest of my body at all. Unfortunately, too much of that sort of thing and I’ll end up asleep on the couch, only to be woken up at the end of the session by my husband. Oops!
I decided to combat this by working on a “General Conference Project” every year. I usually roll the same one over from year to year, because they tend to be fairly indepth and difficult and need more than six or eight hours devoted to them every six months in order to be completed. My General Conference Projects are always cross-stitching–I have been working on a Christmas stocking for me for the last several sessions and it’s fun to me to bring out The Project every six months. This sort of multitasking works perfectly–I am keeping my hands and eyes busy, thus keeping my body awake, and my mind is better able to concentrate on what is being said, instead of fighting “the yawns” every 32 seconds.
There are a lot of tasks that work really well with multitasking. A really organized person (read: not me) could start the laundry, then make dinner and put it in a crock pot, and then clean the living room while listening to an inspirational talk or book on CD. You are doing four tasks (laundry, cooking dinner, cleaning the living room, and learning) at the same time, but none of the items are being sacrificed for the other. This kind of multitasking, or dove-tailing as my mom calls it, is actually a good thing.
For fun, I thought I would compile a top ten list of items that are great to multitask with, and then a list of items that you can only do one at a time. The key is combine the activities that combine brainpower (like reading, writing, listening) with brainless activities (yard work, vacuuming, etc.)
Make sure to check back later today for the two 10 top ten lists, and make sure to leave a comment if you think I left out anything that you do often. If I do miss something
important, I’ll make sure to blame it on not focusing properly as a result of multitasking (after all, I am leaving my e-mail on while writing this.)
Important lesson #37: Do as I say, not as I do.