Multitasking Much?

I read this article recently about how to find more leisure time in your life. When I saw it on zite, I automatically opened it up to read it. What I read struck so close to home... and it sure shot down a lot of truths I believed in, until now. The phenomenon of multitasking - how effective is it really? Some people might say, "nope, that's not me... I don't multitask at all...." Stop right there and think again. How many times have you tried to eat dinner, talk to your husband/kids/parents, and watched the evening news at the same time? When was the last time you sent out that message while driving? What about reading and sitting on the throne (lol!)? Each one of us multitask in some way... some more than others, some better than most. I take pride in being the latter. I take pride in being a master multitasker. But after reading the article, I realized it's one of the reasons why I always say "I'm so busy...." It's because I am doing 10 things at the same time, while another 10 things run through my mind.

These are my realizations about multitasking:

1. It takes a longer time to do everything. Try walking someplace while reading your smartphone. Try doing it again without reading from your smartphone.

2. You make more mistakes. Sometimes, when I talk on the phone while I type an email, I type the word that I just verbally said. 

3. It makes you look insincere. No matter how you sincere you are as you talk to a person in front of you, if you're reading something off your phone or tablet, it looks like you're not sincere. I've been om the receiving end of this and I know.

4. You're bound to forget something. This happens to me at work when I combine sending an email reply with reading a news article and running a financial query. The email usually ends up as a draft, unsent, as I get caught up in looking at the query (or the article). One of the tasks usually end up not finished.

5. You tend to pile it on. Because you've done it, and you think you've done it well... The tendency is to pile yourself with more task. Doing ten things in half the time does not mean you "end" in half the time. Chances are, you'll pile on ten things more. (I'd call that a multi-task-aholic... Call in Multitaskers Anonymous).

I think moms are one of those groups of people who are generally serial multitaskers. I don't really blame them, there's a lot that one has to do in a 24 hour period. Let it go. I'm going to give this non-multi-tasking thing a try. No, it won't be a full change for me, but I will definitely try to slow it down. Maybe I'll find some of that elusive free time I've been looking for!