How many things can you do at once? Can you walk and talk? Can you walk and talk AND keep track of a child? Can you walk and talk and keep track of a child and follow directions that are only in your head to your destination? How many things can we multi-task at once and still do any one of them halfway decently?
Can you pat your head and rub your stomach simultaneously?
Can you talk on the phone and surf the web at the same time?
Is there some law of diminishing returns that governs how progressively less effective you become for each task you add at any given time?
I wonder this, because of my penchant for, and fond belief in, my ability to multi-task. I’m pretty good at it, most of the time, as long as it’s not TOO late at night, when my vision starts getting blurred and my shoulders start aching. Tonight, I was multi-tasking with a vengeance, working on the AWC website, answering and sending emails, uploading content for a Christmas present I’m working on, railing at my email program which doesn’t want to connect to the server, writing the pieces of a customized game that we’ll be playing as part of our presentation at the AWC Regional this weekend, playing a game of Spider Solitaire, and editing photos ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Well, not EXACTLY at the same time, but the activities were going on simultaneously…I was jumping back and forth between them.
I was doing something similar at work earlier today, and MAN, did I get a lot done!
Upshot? Website is further along with several sections finished, necessary emails are dealt with and answered, content is half done, custom game is finished, not all the photos are edited, but that wasn’t going to get done in one day anyway…and I lost the game of solitaire.
I feel accomplished when I get a lot of things done at once, even when I sometimes think that it might be better to concentrate harder on ONE task. I wonder if it’s because I have a short attention span or something…perhaps switching between projects keeps me from getting bored with any one of them. There’s a difference between productive and accomplished, though, and I am probably not always the best judge of which one I have been, even though I think BOTH of those are positive ways to describe the results of my day.
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I met ANOTHER lovely internet friend today, even though it was only for a few moments. Thank you so much, kejn, for dropping off the big bag of apples from your garden! My children were delighted and so was I!
Wonderful Wishes for a Wonderful Birthday to e11en!