Do you find it increasingly harder to multitask?

[Joe Fields]

I certainly do. As I am now in my fifties, and realize that what little brain power I have left has reached the slippery slope of diminished capacity, I have found doing more than one thing at a time rather difficult.
Oh, to be young again...

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. I find it hart to uni-task

I can walk to the basement to get something, then forget what I went down there for.

Or open the refrigerator and forget why, just stare at it hoping for revelation.

It's the A.D.D. in addled.

:rofl:

[Joe Fields]

OMG! You too?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

It really isn't funny, but it is...

[raccoon]

2. Yes. And I'm in my mid-fifties.

When I do multi-task, I'm more likely to dork something up than I used to be.

[Joe Fields]

16. Yes, I feel a lot like the absent minded professor these days...

:eyes:

[Kajsa]

3. I sure do, Joe.

Going through " mental pause" as my son calls it,
I now live in a Post-it note world. I'm 56.

I have notes to remind me of other notes.
;-)

Hang in there, and never forget to laugh.
It saves your sanity.

:hi:

[KitchenWitch]

5. my lists keep me sane

When I die, they are going to bury me in my lists.

[Kajsa]

7. LOL- Hi, KW!

:rofl:


Lists are blueprints of our lives, eh?

:hi: :pals:

[KitchenWitch]

8. Yes...I made a list....

:rofl:

[Kajsa]

10. ROFL !

:rofl:

[Joe Fields]

13. ROFLMAO!!!

At least you remember your lists!:rofl:

[skygazer]

17. I have made lists of my lists

So as not to forget any of the lists I need to have to remember the things I need to do. Of course, I usually forget the pertinent list when I leave the house. x(

[Joe Fields]

18. This is getting much too complicated for me!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[skygazer]

22. You should make a list

:P

[Joe Fields]

30. What I should do is find a deserted island, and get away from

modern civilization.:toast:

[MissMillie]

4. What was that?

didn't get the question.... I'm in the middle of too many things.

[Joe Fields]

20. I forgot...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[tonkatoy57]

6. Multitasking is bullshit

Multitasking is just a technique employers use to make their employees do the jobs of two or three people.

I told my boss long ago that I am a proud unitasker. If he wants me to do something and have it done completely and have it done well, he'd better not come back two minutes later and ask me to do something else as well. I'm appalled at some of the work we do for our clients and ashamed at some of the correspondence that leaves our business. It's half-assed, full of mistakes both factual and gramatical, and it always comes back to bite us in the ass.

Fie on multitasking. All it does is glorify ADD and sloppy halfassed work.

[Kajsa]

Text on a classroom poster.

_______________

If you don't
have time to
do it right

then

you must
have time to
do it over.
________________


:hi: :thumbsup:

[Joe Fields]

26. Very true...

:toast:

[Kajsa]

9. Duplicated post

sorry

[Blue Diadem]

19. Exactly! I don't remember hearing the word before they did so many

job cuts forcing people to do exactly what you said..the work of 2 or 3.

[Joe Fields]

27. That phrase has completely changed the workforce.

Was it a conspiracy? Don't know. But it seems to have bubbled over into our private lives as well. I try to keep my life simplified, but sometimes it cant be done.

[Joe Fields]

21. Thank you, thank you, thank you! A most excellent, and reasonable point.

:toast:

[barb162]

47. I think the word was started by an idiot who thought he or she

could do two things at once.

[NewWaveChick1981]

11. I find that I am a lot more productive focusing on one thing and then

finishing it and moving on quickly to something else. When I am bombarded with telephone interruptions and people stopping by my office, it breaks my concentration and I have a hard time getting back to what I was trying to finish.

Multitasking is a myth. I hate the word, but I also hate the concept. If I try to do too many things at once, nothing gets finished and I make more mistakes.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. Right. Multitasking is just serial unitasking

with time-wasting gear-grinding to shift between task segments.

But, WTH, it's a paycheck.

[Joe Fields]

23. I like things to stay simple and orderly. Multi-tasking just brings a

type of chaos into my life that is unwelcome and full of pitfalls. I'm like you. I can do many things quite well, as long as I have the opportunity to complete them, before I get interrupted with numerous other things.:hi:

[wildhorses]

12. increasinly undesirable not necessarily harder.

:shrug:

[Joe Fields]

25. You mean your head never feels like doing this?

[wildhorses]

29. yeah, it does. but -- it itakes a lot to get it that way

i actually thrive under pressure :shrug:

[Blue Diadem]

14. I'm experiencing it too.

Heck the other day while spending time in the garden, my granddaughter showed me a bug in her bug cage that she was attempting to feed veggies. Now..I'm thinking Oh my, that looks like a cherry tomato but when I opened my mouth to ask, I asked her if that was a cucumber! I wish you could have seen the look on my daughter and granddaughters face. I just laughed of course..but why was I thinking tomato but my mouth said cucumber?

My daughter told my son that they have to watch me now..

[Joe Fields]

28. Oh lord...

I'm right there with ya....:hi:

[Inchworm]

24. I was never real good at true multi-tasking

You know.. well.. I can do many things at once, but each part suffers. If I focus on one thing, I can get more done. I do this to a fault sometimes though. Ill be too busy finishing a task to realize the kitchen is on fire :D

:hi:

[Joe Fields]

31. My philosophy? You can always go out to eat...

:rofl:

[SteppingRazor]

32. I think this is something of a generational thing too

I'm right on the border between Gens X and Y, and having grown up utterly overstimulated, my idea of a quiet night at home involves playing on the computer while strumming my guitar along with music playing on the stereo while the TV is on mute in the background.

[Mutley]

33. ha!

That describes people our age all too well. :D

[Joe Fields]

35. You brought up a very valid point.

I consider doing nothing just that. Sitting quietly, enjoying the peace. I'm not sure how many gen Xers could do that, without going nuts. Which, of course is fine. I think it does have a lot to do with the overstimulated world in which your generations were raised in. There are only so many hours in the day.

[BluePatriot]

34. I'm young and I'm really bad at multitasking

Then again, my employer is exploiting the hell out of me to do as much as possible and I can't really keep up. So, don't feel bad. It's probably not all your fault. I don't think our brains work the same way and at the same pace technology does.

[Joe Fields]

38. Admittedly, technology is way over my head. I rely on my son to

set the vcr.:rofl:

[Callalily]

36. I wish employers

would realize that constantly shifting gears is unproductive. Quality of work suffers tremedously.

Lists are great and a necessary tool.

In my personal life, if I find myself becoming multi-task obsessive, I grab my book and read, and the heck with all my other chores. :rofl:

[Joe Fields]

39. Employers probably do realize it, but customer's expectations have become

trained to be so low, that almost any output is deemed 'acceptable' anymore.

[Deep13]

37. I've never really attempted it.

I do 1 thing at a time.

[Joe Fields]

40. Cool...

:toast:

[barb162]

41. I never could and I believe no one can do it well

Drive and text message? I'd rather not be the passenger in that car.

[Joe Fields]

42. Thank you!!!

I don't know which is more dangerous. That, or drinking and driving.:toast:

[barb162]

43. There was a thread here a few days ago about several dead

teens in a car crash. They think the driver was texting. However, having been in several near misses because of cell phone gabbers, I'd like to see a nationwide ban on all cell phone use while driving except maybe emergencies. Statistically it's causing a lot of accidents. I pull over if I have to get on the phone. Unless my total attention is on the road, I'm not on the road.

The other thing I was going to mention is that multi-tasking is really a misnomer. You may think you're doing five things at once, but each second you're concentrating on only ONE of those things. Those super powered "multi-taskers are deluding themselves.

[Nikia]

44. I don't like to multi task

And try to avoid it as much as possible, although it is difficult at my job. My boss thinks that he is great at multi tasking but is actually lousy.

[InvisibleTouch]

45. I've never really been able to multi-task.

Never could understand how people could be on the net and have TV going in the background, for instance, or even have the TV on as background noise while ostensibly having a conversation. I like to focus totally on what I'm doing, otherwise I feel like I'm not fully experiencing it.

Of course on the web I do a lot of jumping back and forth between windows, but that's just nervous energy while I wait for stuff to load. When I'm really working on something, I need to focus on it to the exclusion of all else. For entire days at a time, sometimes. Even the unavoidable breaks irritate me then.

[Nikia]

48. I hate it when people have the tv on and expect me to have conversation

I think that it would be rude of me to tell them to turn it off, but it also feels rude for them to have it on.

[InvisibleTouch]

49. I DO tell them to turn it off.

I say "Either I'm talking to you, or I'm watching TV. Not both." (Likewise I hate to be talked at when I am trying to watch something.) Because even if they can ignore it, I can't - if it's on, it keeps trying to reach out and snag my attention.

[Throwing Stones]

46. Wait, this isn't what I think it is, is it?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=6729703

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=6730010

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=6730341

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=6730065

[Joe Fields]

50. No, but I believe I was the impetus for their idea...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: