What's new

Multi-tasking or single focus kind of person?

bcgal00

bcgal00

Say, "birdseed!"
Pollywog
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
9,653
Are you a multi-tasking kind of person or do you focus on one thing until it's complete, before moving on to another task?

I'm a mutli-tasker which can get me in trouble sometimes b/c I end up spending more time going from task to task than actually getting anything done....but when it works...it works well.

This morning it worked well.

I've not been feeling well and am frankly just sick of being sick LOL. I have things I want to do. So I decided to push myself a bit this morning, over-ride the sick feeling, kind of the "fake it til you make it" mentality. So I started multi-tasking. I feel good. I got a bunch of little things accomplished. in 1/2 hr I managed to:
  1. take stuff out of dryer, turned around and opened freezer, taking out meat for dinner to thaw
  2. turned right and grabbed 3 bins of scrap supplies and stacked them under a cupboard, so they are together. moved 3 boxes into garage for recycling, then grabbed laundry basket as I headed back thru the basement, grabbing coffee cup to bring up to refill in kitchen and grabbed a bag of pumpkin spice coffee from storage cupboard downstairs (overflow groceries go in here)
  3. after putting cup down, I put coffee in pantry, saw 2 bags of Taz's treats, opened the bags and dumped them into the big glass jar of treats (which keeps them fresher but I don't know why I do this, he's a dog, he doesn't care if they are fresh LOL)
  4. checked soup labels and made a note of which I'm low on, then cleaned coffee filter and make a fresh coffee
  5. put refilled coffee on stairway ledge and went down the hall to the closet to grab a hoodie and vest to go out dog walking soon, then grabbed 3 hoodies I don't wear anymore (don't ask about my weight this year...ugh) to put in bag for charity
  6. then sorted closet into his/her side (my side is much bigger btw, as it should be LOL), closed closet and saw Taz's toys on the floor. Grabbed them and headed to the LR
  7. put toys away in his bin, then took 2 bananas out of the bowl on LR table and took cookie tin out to put on kitchen counter as I want to make some GF banana muffins later today.
  8. started dishwasher and grabbed coffee off stairway ledge as I headed back downstairs.
I'm feeling super organized and productive right now :) It won't last long though, I'll soon be walking around, forgetting what I was going to do, and then forgetting about it.

What about you?
 
I do much better when I can wholly focus on one thing but I rarely have that luxury.

I'm usually doing two or three things at once: washing leftover dishes while I'm making my son lunch, folding clothes while I wait on my daughter to finish showering so I can do her hair for her, catching up on my Hulu shows while I scrap.
 
Total multi-tasker. I've always got the TV on while I'm dong multiple things at home. And don't even get e started on how many projects I'm working on at the same time at work (while listening to music).
 
LeeAndra said:
I do much better when I can wholly focus on one thing but I rarely have that luxury.

I'm usually doing two or three things at once: washing leftover dishes while I'm making my son lunch, folding clothes while I wait on my daughter to finish showering so I can do her hair for her, catching up on my Hulu shows while I scrap.
Click to expand...
I love to watch shows on my laptop when I'm on my PC in my office. It saves my hubs from having to watch with me upstairs on the LR tv. I always watch the cooking shows and reality shows on my laptop. My hubs would run screaming from the room if I subjected him to an episode of the Bachelor/Bachelorette LOL.
 
mrs2a50 said:
Total multi-tasker. I've always got the TV on while I'm dong multiple things at home. And don't even get e started on how many projects I'm working on at the same time at work (while listening to music).
Click to expand...
TV on at home....almost all the time here too. I watch out of the corner of my eye when cleaning up, cooking, reading in my chair and always when scrapping.
 
I multi tasked when I had to back when I was working full time, in school and with teenagers at home. My single parent years. I didn't have a tv for most of that time but the radio was on as we all liked music. It's also a stage of life when most women really have too much to do for the time available. Now, I am a focus on the one thing person but not until it's done. I can easily switch from computer time to de-cluttering for a while, to hanging laundry etc. Laundry is right outside my studio door and cooking is still enjoyable most of the time for me. To me those are background activities but I've learned the hard way that my dh does not 'smell' when something cooking is ready even though he is sitting reading about 2 ft from the cooktop. I can be in another room and 'hear' the water boil or notice that scent changing. That's why I'm the cook I guess! He just happily eats it up!

As the tv is in a room of its own, when I watch, I really watch! It is a great hour or two for me in the pm and a good change for my eyes.
 
pretty much multi tasker all my life.... just these days it is a bit more difficult, but yes, apart from driving...I can;t do much when Im driving....I even have to turn the radio or ant=y music on when I m going on a place I have never been before!!!
 
Oh my gosh, Rae! @bcgal00 I multi task like that, too!

I'm too tired tonight to type it all out . . . but I'm forever grabbing things on my way to somewhere else. My 8th grade English teacher always harped on conserving energy . . . thinking ahead and doing more than one thing at once. I think about that all the time. Am I using my time wisely? And then I multi-task and then sit down and waste a bunch of time. LOL
 
I try really hard to focus on one thing, but most of the time I just can't. I will start something and then *squirrel* I'm doing something else and going back and forth! And I will always do like 10 different things along my way to do one thing lol. There are times I have to make myself focus!
 
Rae, you did all of that in a half hour?! You're Superwoman! Some mornings I barely accomplish eating breakfast, getting DD to school, and taking a shower (in that order rotfl). But I've found that I get more done if I start my day off doing a load of laundry. IDK why, but if I bring a load downstairs with me in the morning as soon as I wake up and actually put the load in the washer, instead of sitting it in front of the washer and saying "I'll do it later," then I get more done throughout the rest of the day. Perhaps it's that whole "A thousand-mile journey starts with one step" mentality, where once I get started I know I can keep going? IDK. But anyway, as far as mutlitasking: I was better before I had kids. Now I have feel like I barely have enough mental capacity left to focus on one thing, let alone 2 or 3. (In fact, the TV is paused right now while I write this: I can't watch and type at the same time!)
 
A lot of times we have to multi-task. Like when I'm doing something on the computer and my son asks me to put a pizza in the oven. But I notice I do better when I focus one one thing at a time. For the most part; some things are easier to multi-task than others.
 
mrs2a50 said:
Total multi-tasker. I've always got the TV on while I'm dong multiple things at home. And don't even get e started on how many projects I'm working on at the same time at work (while listening to music).
Click to expand...

Totally me. I'm always doing 3-4 things at a time, or on a trip around the house or at work. I rarely do one thing at a time.
 
I'm not only a multi-tasker, I'm a scanner. I've recently discovered that has been my problem for a long time. :giggle I also suspect, after going through all of the diagnostic processes and education surrounding Kennedy's ADHD, that I also have it but it didn't impact me at school so much because I was so ahead of the rest of the class, my teachers would let me do my own thing a lot of the time. I have a very hard time focusing on only one thing at a time unless I'm super interested in it, and then I risk losing myself down a rabbit hole with it.
 
bcgal00 said:
I love to watch shows on my laptop when I'm on my PC in my office. It saves my hubs from having to watch with me upstairs on the LR tv. I always watch the cooking shows and reality shows on my laptop. My hubs would run screaming from the room if I subjected him to an episode of the Bachelor/Bachelorette LOL.
Click to expand...

I watch everything on my iPad while I scrap on my desktop and large monitor while hubs watches "his" shows on the big screen in the living room .... he's a Walking Dead kind of TV watcher - I am a Bachelor/Bachelorette kind of watcher!
 
JillW said:
I watch everything on my iPad while I scrap on my desktop and large monitor while hubs watches "his" shows on the big screen in the living room .... he's a Walking Dead kind of TV watcher - I am a Bachelor/Bachelorette kind of watcher!
Click to expand...
I'd fit in with either of you....I love both. :) I just started watching the Ben/Lauren Happily Ever After show. Are you watching that?
 
And I've been working on becoming less of a multi-tasker as studies are showing that's least productive at times (probably times like this when I should be doing homework). I've learned to work without the TV on up until 1 or 2 at least then I can't stand the silence anymore. I struggle to focus sometimes and I think that's due to a medication reaction but whatever, I'm learning to live with it. I'm also learning to live with the panic of not having my homework done until just before it's due (today). I'm working on that one trying to get it done earlier in the week. This just wasn't a good week for that.
 
Tree City said:
But I've found that I get more done if I start my day off doing a load of laundry. IDK why, but if I bring a load downstairs with me in the morning as soon as I wake up and actually put the load in the washer, instead of sitting it in front of the washer and saying "I'll do it later," then I get more done throughout the rest of the day
Click to expand...
I totally get this. I got the concept from The Flylady and often put a load in at night to start just before I get up. As my laundry is right outside my studio - and my computer which comes on at 07:00 - I know I'll be there to put clothes in the dryer as soon as they're done. That's a great feeling of accomplishment before breakfast! :laundry
 
Wow! I am impressed. I would have lost my cup of coffee somewhere along the way, or put the bananas in the closet, or ... and my cup of coffee would be cold by the time I found it again.

Every time I walk upstairs and do about 3 things on the way or while I am up there, I often don't remember the original reason for going upstairs until I am back downstairs without it. I just consider it extra exercise and a sign of old age.
 
I am a multi-tasker...always have been I guess. My girls tease me because I generally can not watch a movie if I don't have my laptop...I fall asleep LOL. Now that I have 2 computers both with multi screens, I listen to movies/tv shows while I am digi scrapping or computer working...I just can't seem to do just one thing...some how everything is connected to something else and the merry go round just keeps going LOL
 
I multi-task when I have to, but I don't like to because at the end, it takes longer, I feel like I didn't get much accomplished and I didn't get to enjoy anything along the way. It's all rushing from one thing to another and hoping that in the end, *something* gets finished. But since I tend to multi task chores like laundry, dishes, and mail, it is literally never-ending.

Some of what you are including in multi-tasking (tv, radio, etc), I don't consider a task in itself. There is always some sort of background noise in the house -- usually the tv -- that I might be aware of now and then, but it isn't something that I can say I'm actively watching or listening to. It's more like a filler for when I have a second that I'm not doing something else.

My biggest issue with multi-tasking is not going back IN A TIMELY FASHION to certain tasks that are out of my control, like machine cycles. I can't do as many loads when I am only changing out the washer and dryer once every two or three hours and a chore that could be done in a day (with hourly changeovers) takes all week (with several hours between each changeover.)

I tried something recently where I ignored everything else that had to be done, and decided to focus on just laundry. In between loading, folding and putting away, while I was waiting for the next cycle to finish, I would sit down and deliberately only watch TV. After each episode (I was on Netflix), I would pause and go check the status of the dryer, and then choose the next episode (half hour vs hour) based on the time left. I actually got all the laundry finished in one day! (That never happens!) I didn't get as many other things accomplished, but it was easy to catch up on those in the next couple of days.

I don't have the luxury of doing that every weekend, but it's nice when I can -- I get the satisfaction of a whole afternoon where every single laundry hamper in the house is completely empty. I still have a sink full of dishes and mail to sort, but I can do those in one pass, now that the laundry is out of the way.
 
Back
Top