Multitasking and Sustainability

There's a lot of people out there who say that multitasking is not efficient. While there are others who swear by it. I'm one of the latter. In fact, I'm sure it is what we do naturally, and to get better at life, it is a matter of getting better at multitasking!

Sure there are some things we do that require our full attention.

Yet, I can recall some heightened moments of extreme emotions lately that had my so called "fullest attention" ... nevertheless my mind was simultaneously reaching out to other thoughts, including the awareness that how I responded to the situation was up to me. Have you ever noticed how in these intense situations, time seems to slow down... almost like the universe is helping us to continue to multitask?

I thought I'd write about this because I am considering how much is the right amount of multitasking for me... for my current level of ability.

When I think about it, it is more to do with practise, and maintaining awareness... enough awareness to not drop the ball so to speak. If I have never juggled 3 balls at once, how well would I go with 6?

So how do we multitask?

Right now, as I write this... I'm multitasking.

I am waiting for PDFs to download, and instead of just watching it happen for about a minute, I thought I would just write a bit here, and then switch back to the PDFs. There are 2 more that need downloading. I'm also composing the points I'll make to the client when I send them.

This is multitasking isn't it? Even if I just go and put on a load of washing (hmmm.... should I add that in to my current repertoire?), and let the machine wash my clothes while I am doing something else, that is multitasking as well. So long as I don't do too many other things that will make me forget about my clothes, all is good.

Yet, I admit... there have been a few times in my life I have forgotten my clothes and let them sit in the washing machine for a little too long 😱😂

I guess there are some things we can risk like this... but there are others we can't... and that is what has me thinking about sustainability.

How many balls can you Juggle?

I remember as a teenager trying to juggle six balls at once. Over and over I failed. Then I went down to 4, then to 3, and still I was failing. So then I tried 2. Sort of ok... but then I tried just one ball. I focussed on that for a bit. Then I went up to 2, and all of a sudden 3 balls didn't seem too difficult. That was doable. It was about spreading my focus and taking a wholistic picture of what was going on. Also this sense of "building up" rather than just feeling overwhelmed.

Admittedly I wasn't able to get to over 4 balls... but it was just a one day adventure, and I had no objective to enter the circus.

The point of course is that if we practise and familiarise ourselves by slowing down a bit, we can eventually sustain more multitasking - especially if we keep that wholistic and interconnected picture of what is going on.

We're each familiar with some things more than others, and how fast we can go has a lot to do with how much practice we've put in previously.

What are you multitasking right now?