“Knock
Knock”
“Who’s
there?”
“Interrupting
dog.”
“Interrupting
do..”
”Ruff
ruff ruff ruff.”
Ah
they got me again. Of course I’ve heard
this one before, but it had been a while and I walked right into it. It was interesting timing because earlier in
the week I had been reading a few different articles about everyday
interruptions and multi-tasking.
Multi-tasking has become the new, and expected, normal and it goes to a
whole different level if you are a mom.
I have been a proud multi-tasker for many years. Make the lunches, empty the dishwasher, fire
off spelling words, put cereal in a bowl and find whatever is “missing” all at
once – that’s not multi-tasking, that’s Wednesday morning at my house. But recent studies show that multi-tasking
may not be something to brag about after all.
We
have become an “always on” society. We
expect to be able to find anything at anytime from anywhere and it is evident
in all areas of our lives. At work, even
though I am in a meeting, it is perfectly acceptable for someone to “ask a
quick question” via instant messenger. I
have been known to finish typing an email on one subject and carry on a
conversation regarding another subject at the same time. In fact, if I didn’t multi-task at work, I
would probably add 2-3 hours of work to my day just to get everything
done. At home it’s very, very rare that
you can do any one thing without being interrupted and/or having to do
something else at the same time. I don’t
have to list any examples, I’m sure that you have plenty you can think of from
your own lives.
The
problem is that no matter how good I might think I am at multi-tasking, science
says otherwise. Studies have shown that multi-tasking
can actually increase the amount of time it takes to complete a task, sometimes
as much as 25% more. In other words all
the time that I think I am saving by doing multiple things at once, I may
actually be extending the amount of time it takes to work on them. That’s a valid point. No one multi-tasks with the intention of
taking longer to complete something. Ever since I read that I’ve been trying to
re-evaluate the tasks that I do at the same time and try to stop myself in
situations where I could possibly be adding more time. It’s not easy, but even if I can “single task”
one time during the day, I count that as a win.
There’s
another element of multi-tasking that we haven’t really touched on. When you are doing multiple things at once,
you are dividing your attention among those things as well. When we are talking about tasks (laundry,
dishes, making dinner, cleaning) dividing your attention is difficult, but
possible. When we add people into the
mix of multi-tasking, things change exponentially. If I am making dinner and helping with
homework, am I really helping my child in the best possible way? Or when you are with a friend, you think
nothing of checking your phone (even if it is just a quick glance). We are so used to multi-tasking, that when we
try to single task it is uncomfortable.
We are so used to multi-tasking, that we no longer see it as an
interruption. Our relationships with
each other deserve our full, undivided attention and we can’t do that if we are
constantly distracted by interrupting dogs.
Heart-FULLy
Yours,
Kacey
p.s.
You may be thinking, the blog is great, but I could never do that! I disagree and am here to help! Let’s schedule a 30 minute consultation to define
what matters most to you right now and create a plan on how to spend
more of your time doing that. Email
me at balancedheartcoaching@gmail.com and we’ll work out the details.
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