Multitasking? Is there a gene missing?

[java]

Or is it a gender thing?

I am a multitasker. Right now, for example, I have laundry going, I'm making bacon, helping my son write a paper and I'm dissing!

My husband stood watching toast toast.


So are you a multitasker? Or are you a one task kind of person? And can a multitasker live in peace with a one tasker, or is it inevitable that one day the toaster may be smashed over someone's head?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Or is it a gender thing?

I am a multitasker. Right now, for example, I have laundry going, I'm making bacon, helping my son write a paper and I'm dissing!

My husband stood watching toast toast.


So are you a multitasker? Or are you a one task co exes kind of person? And can a multitasker live in peace with a one tasker, or is it inevitable that one day the toaster may be smashed over someone's head?

Well...here is the thing about "multi-tasking".

You are more efficient and make less errors when you do not multi task.

Just because you can multi task does not mean that it is "better".

When I learned of this study a few yrs ago, I did slow things back a bit and try to finish BIG projects before moving onto the next one.

That being said, as a wife and mother it is the only way to get through the day sometimes.

 

[OceanAnnie]

Well...here is the thing about "multi-tasking".

You are more efficient and make less errors when you do not multi task.

Just because you can multi task does not mean that it is "better".

When I learned of this study a few yrs ago, I did slow things back a bit and try to finish BIG projects before moving onto the next one.

That being said, as a wife and mother it is the only way to get through the day sometimes.

Sums it up pretty well!

I get what you are saying on the big projects. But day to day stuff, it's multi-tasking that gets it done for me.

 

[Christine]

I multi-task. I think women are generally better at it (or an even attempt it) due to the way our brains function. That said, it has been proven with fMRIs, that people only *think* they are multitasking. The brain can't actually do it in the way we think it can. What you are doing is several different things at one time with none of them being done as exceptionally well as they could be done if you devoted all your attention to it. For many tasks, not giving your 100% is probably just fine.

 

[Southernmiss]

Sums it up pretty well!

I get what you are saying on the big projects. But day to day stuff, it's multi-tasking that gets it done for me.

There's no way I could accomplish all the household tasks without multitasking.

Men are so differently wired.

For some reason I'm the only one who is in on the secret that garbage collectors come on Wednesday and Saturday and recycling on Tuesday. And that in order to get your house hold trash picked up, it must be to the curb before they come.

Take yesterday, we were getting ready to leave for the day by 9am. Dh cleaned the kitchen counters and then went to sit down and watch tv. Before he did, we talked about food in the fridge that should be thrown away.

I went on to water plants, refill bird feeders and get a few more things ready before we left.

Garbage men came about 10 am.

Now after that conversation, I would have thrown the food out, loaded the dish washer and started it and taken the trash out.

Got home the food is still in the fridge, the dishwasher needed to be run and the garbage cans were full.

Arghh!

 

[Poohforyou]

Men aren't good multi taskers. It's a proven fact. They get things done but need to generally get them done one at a time.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Well...here is the thing about "multi-tasking".

You are more efficient and make less errors when you do not multi task.

Just because you can multi task does not mean that it is "better".

When I learned of this study a few yrs ago, I did slow things back a bit and try to finish BIG projects before moving onto the next one.

That being said, as a wife and mother it is the only way to get through the day sometimes.

Yeah, what I see of multi-tasking is usually just another way to describe screwing up 5 tasks simultaneously

 

[Gumbo4x4]

There's no way I could accomplish all the household tasks without multitasking.

Men are so differently wired.

For some reason I'm the only one who is in on the secret that garbage collectors come on Wednesday and Saturday and recycling on Tuesday. And that in order to get your house hold trash picked up, it must be to the curb before they come.

Take yesterday, we were getting ready to leave for the day by 9am. Dh cleaned the kitchen counters and then went to sit down and watch tv. Before he did, we talked about food in the fridge that should be thrown away.

I went on to water plants, refill bird feeders and get a few more things ready before we left.

Garbage men came about 10 am.

Now after that conversation, I would have thrown the food out, loaded the dish washer and started it and taken the trash out.

Got home the food is still in the fridge, the dishwasher needed to be run and the garbage cans were full.

Arghh!

That to me isn't multi-tasking. That's multiple tasks, but what you describe is moving from task to task to task, each one complete before you start the next.

 

[OhMari]

Sometimes I multi task too much and I spend my whole day trying to get things done. As I get older I tend to try to stay with one task. Last week, I planted my flowers, while I was doing laundry, hanging out laundry, walked the dog, made supper on the grill, washed some windows that the birds pooped on and realized I was finally finished with the flower garden at 7 at night. If that would of been my dh, he would of had that flower bed done in an hour and it took me six hours.

 

[Southernmiss]

That to me isn't multi-tasking. That's multiple tasks, but what you describe is moving from task to task to task, each one complete before you start the next.

You are probably correct. But they are multiple tasks each related to the other that logically (in my mind) should have been done in easy succession without a prompt to get done.

But there are many times I've got laundry, dinner, dishwasher and kid homework going at the same time like op.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

You are probably correct. But they are multiple tasks each related to the other that logically (in my mind) should have been done in easy succession without a prompt to get done.

Agreed

But there are many times I've got laundry, dinner, dishwasher and kid homework going at the same time like op.

That's more like it. For me, I can multi-task on all the dinner chores (cooking, cleaning pots & pans as I empty), and setting the table. But, as a guy, I go at it as seeing all those as separate parts of the same task I wouldn't try to add laundry to that because I've seen DW boil stuff over on the stove WAY too many times attempting that mess

 

[Tinkermommy]

I am actually trying to stop multi-tasking. I read this article earlier this year and thought it made a lot of sense. http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in...ts-your-brain-and-your-effectiveness-at-work/

I try to focus on one task at a time. Now granted, that is hard to do. Sometimes I am making dinner and helping with homework because of time constraints, but I neither task is getting my full and best attention.

I think sometimes we buy into this "super mom/dad/person" idea of multitasking. I think about my Grandmother who raised 10, cooked and canned and made their clothes. She was not rushed, she focused on the one thing she was doing at the time, but she didn't stop. She just moved onto the next thing. She was highly productive but not a multi-tasker at all.

I have found that as I have tried to focus one one thing, I feel much less stressed and get just as much done.

For the examples, the OP gave, not all of that is multi-tasking. Throwing items in a dishwasher (or washing machine) is running it means that task that accomplished. The dishwasher or washing machine running doesn't make you multi-tasking. And going from one task to another is not multi-tasking.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I have found that as I have tried to focus one one thing, I feel much less stressed and get just as much done.

I went into work yesterday & was the only one there. With no phones, no e-mails, no trucks making deliveries or picking up, nobody to drop by my desk with some issue, it's amazing how quickly I was able to accomplish several tasks that would have taken nearly a full day each on a regular work day.

 

[Coonhound]

Or is it a gender thing?

I am a multitasker. Right now, for example, I have laundry going, I'm making bacon, helping my son write a paper and I'm dissing!

My husband stood watching toast toast.


So are you a multitasker? Or are you a one task kind of person? And can a multitasker live in peace with a one tasker, or is it inevitable that one day the toaster may be smashed over someone's head?

Our brains are not wired to focus on multiple things at once, and when we try, sometimes things got messed up because we make mistakes.

You can THINK you are multi tasking, but you're really not:

You put the laundry in, so that's done, you don't have to focus on that task again until the timer goes off and the laundry a done.
You are not currently making bacon, you already put it on and you are stopping what you're doing to check on it from time to time, you stop giving your full attention to another task in order to focus your attention on the progress of the bacon.
You say you are helping with homework but you stop giving your attention to the homework when you're looking at dis posts, therefore the homework and the child doing the homework are not receiving your full attention. It's not as if you can be answering a child's question while at the same time writing a dis post on another subject entirely.

So it SEEMS as if your multitasking, but really you're doing each thing separately because you focus on one thing and then put it to the back burner and focus on something else for the time being.

 

[lustergirl]

My hubby is definitely not a multi tasker. He has been doing the laundry and forgets about it. It takes him three or four days to do 2 loads of wash, drives me crazy. I have trouble getting up and down the basement stairs because of my knee right now otherwise the laundry would be done in a couple of hours while I am multitasking doing something else.

Oh well, his intentions are good

 

[JessicaR]

Or is it a gender thing?

I am a multitasker. Right now, for example, I have laundry going, I'm making bacon, helping my son write a paper and I'm dissing!

My husband stood watching toast toast.


So are you a multitasker? Or are you a one task kind of person? And can a multitasker live in peace with a one tasker, or is it inevitable that one day the toaster may be smashed over someone's head?

Absolutely a multitasker. To the point of exhaustion sometimes. Then i can stand and watch toast toast, because i am toasted!....

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I'm a multi-tasker because I have to be to get everything done.

My husband has tried but gets distracted and then nothing gets done.

He would never be out of bed before noon on a weekend though so he would definitely just be standing there watching the toast toast if he was because his brain wasn't functioning yet. LOL

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I'm a multi-tasker because I have to be to get everything done.

My husband has tried but gets distracted and then nothing gets done.

He would never be out of bed before noon on a weekend though so he would definitely just be standing there watching the toast toast if he was because his brain wasn't functioning yet. LOL

See, when my wife tries to multi-task, that's when nothing gets finished. She starts one thing, gets distracted, starts another, gets distracted, starts another, and at the end of the day has 4 or 5 unfinished projects. It takes ~3 hours to cut our grass. If DW had to do it, it'd take her a month because she would start & stop every 15 minutes

She's been in the process of organizing her laundry room for about 2 years. She never spends more than a few minutes on it before she's on to some other task. I decided to organize the garage. Took about 4 hours because I focused on that ONE task, and didn't deviate from it until it was DONE.

 

[RadioNate]

Or is it a gender thing?

I am a multitasker. Right now, for example, I have laundry going, I'm making bacon, helping my son write a paper and I'm dissing!

My husband stood watching toast toast.


So are you a multitasker? Or are you a one task kind of person? And can a multitasker live in peace with a one tasker, or is it inevitable that one day the toaster may be smashed over someone's head?

In my life, I find it to be a gender difference.

Just now, I was making my lunch, making the kids lunch, unloading groceries and talking to my dad on the phone. My dad was sitting in his chair talking on the phone. He had to go so he could start making his lunch.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I'm in between - I can be bored out of my tree doing just one thing, but completely overwhelmed doing too many things at once.

I liken it to bandwidth, and not all tasks are created equal. So some things take up all I've got, and some take up less and can (or have to) be combined. - For instance, I can't just sit and eat. If I'm home by myself at lunch, I'll read, or watch TV, or browse here, while I'm eating. I need my brain engaged. But if I'm cooking, and trying to keep a cat out of the way, and helping with homework, none of those things get done very well. (I can do laundry, though, as I figure the machine is really doing that, not me.)

DH is actually a better multi-tasker than I am --- unless one of those things is reading! He gets completely absorbed in that, while I often squeeze it into the "dead space" of other tasks. - So I'll read when I just have to be available for the occasional homework question, or while I'm waiting for something in the oven, or for DS to be done at practice. You get the idea.

In general, I do think too much multi-tasking is stressful, so it's another one of those places where we all need to find the right balance for ourselves.