Is there anyone who doesn’t multitask? You read everything about doing one thing at a time and putting all of your effort and concentration on the one thing you’re doing so you’ll do it right. But, honestly, how is there time to do everything if you do that?
I never do one thing at once. Sometimes I do five things at once. I honestly feel I will never get everything done if I only do one thing at a time.
I don’t even brush my teeth without doing something else. I run around the house, brushing my teeth while I fold laundry or while I sweep the floor or while I wipe down countertops. One of the main reasons I don’t use an electric toothbrush, although my dentist always recommends it, is because you can’t do household chores while brushing your teeth with an electric toothbrush. It’s just too heavy. It will fall right out of your mouth.
I always have a list of at least a dozen things swirling in my head, so it makes sense why I will try to do multiple things at one time.
Like filling the dog’s water bowl. Why does it take so long to sit there and fill the dog’s water bowl? While I’m filling the dog’s water bowl I think, “Oh, there’s at least two quick things I can do instead of sitting here and waiting.”
We have a reverse osmosis faucet and so I used to put the bowl on the counter and start filling it up and go do something else quickly and then come back. Until that one day when I forgot about it and it overflowed all over the countertop and all over the floor. And all down the insides of the cabinets and the drawers underneath. That was a mess, but then I learned I should put the dog’s bowl in the sink to fill it up and then go do something else. Just in case I forget, which I always know I won’t.
That worked perfectly until the one morning when I got up, and the dog’s bowl was still in the sink, full of water, with the faucet still in the on position. Had I left it running all night long?!? Obviously, yes.
I had put it in the sink to start filling up the water before I went to bed while I fed the cat and let the dog out and, obviously, completely forgot about it.
I started freaking out about my water bill, but honestly, I should’ve been freaking out more about my memory. In case you’re wondering, the water bill was fine. I had a panic moment that my water bill would be $1,000 from letting it run all night. Unrealistic, I know, but there’s no reasoning with a panicked Brita.
We were going out of town to visit my mom a few weeks ago. Ever since I was little, my mom has made me eggs in bed. But they are not really eggs in bed. It’s just where you fry an egg in a little hole in the bread. There’s a bunch of different names for them like toad in the hole or something like that.
My mom makes me those every single time I’m home and it’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. They remind me of when I was little and something as simple as an egg in bed could fix the world. I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic, hungry, and ambitious, and I thought I would make myself some eggs in bed.
While I was standing there watching the eggs cook, I was getting really impatient and thinking about all the other things I could be doing while the eggs cooked. I had a brilliant idea that I could run upstairs and pack my son’s clothes really quickly for vacation while I was letting the eggs cook. Well, I’m sure you can figure out how that turned out. Writing this now I see that it seems unrealistic and slightly ridiculous, but honestly, I’m a really really fast packer. And a really bad cook.
As you can imagine, I burned the eggs. But I wasn’t going to waste them and they didn’t look that bad so I ate them. They were gross. But then I was feeling really disappointed afterwards and a little discouraged so I told myself that I CAN make eggs in bed. I told myself this wouldn’t be a failure and I just need to try again.
So, I picked myself up, dusted off my apron (kidding, I don’t wear an apron, but I just thought it sounded good for the story), and tried, once again, to make eggs in bed. But, again, I got super impatient waiting for them to cook, so I just went to do some smaller things such as clean the downstairs bathroom and, guess what? I burned the eggs again. But still, I ate them because I did not want to waste them. I had eaten four burnt eggs while multitasking, and still did not learn my multitasking lesson.
I always have a list of about 12 things in my head to do. I’m one of those people who walks in the room and forgets why i went in there, but I’ve heard that’s common. People always suggest I write a list instead of trying to remember things in my head. It really makes a lot of sense and would make things much easier, but still I think I’m great at remembering things so I keep doing things that way.
Isn’t it interesting how sometimes when things don’t work we just keep doing it the same way? Is it a habit? Is it because we’re too lazy to change? Or is it just us trying to prove to ourselves that this way can work if we just try a little harder?
The other day I came home from work and was feeling really hungry. I decided to make myself some pasta. I filled the pot with water, and I put it on the stove and turned it on.
Then I went upstairs to do a few things while I waited for the water to boil. I sat at my computer and sent a few work emails. Then I put away some laundry and I cleaned the bathrooms upstairs. I was walking downstairs to get something and I thought to myself, “Geez, I’m a little hungry.”
And then I thought, “Didn’t I make pasta? Did I eat the pasta?” And then I ran to the kitchen and luckily there was a little water still boiling in the pot. Just a little! Like less than an inch. That could’ve been a disaster! I am always a little nervous when things like that happen and I told myself I should probably quit multitasking and do one thing at a time. I have not taken my advice yet.
The other night, my brother and I were making mac & cheese. I was of course, doing a million other things while making mac & cheese, like the dishes and sweeping the floor and folding a little laundry and feeding the dog. And multitasking, of course, so I was doing all this stuff while we were making mac & cheese and then I put it in the oven to bake for 25 minutes and sat down with my brother to watch TV.
I did set the timer on the oven. After a little while, I asked my brother if he could see how much time was left on the oven clock because I’m blind and cannot see that far and was too lazy to get up. He looked at the oven clock, he squinted, and he asked me if I was sure I turned the oven on. I tsked at him and responded with, “Of course I turned the oven on!” Just to be sure, I got up and checked. And guess what? You guessed it, I was baking the mac & cheese in the oven for 25 minutes and it wasn’t even turned on. I guess that’s what I get by trying to do a bunch of other things at the same time. It worked out fine, dinner was just a little late. It taught us all patience.
I can’t even watch TV without doing something else at the same time. I’m always typing on my computer or scrolling through my phone or reading the news.
I can’t even clean my house or do laundry or walk the dog without listening to an audiobook on my phone.
I know that I’m always distracted and that’s why, on rare occasions, I have found my car keys in the fridge and my cell phone in the silverware drawer. I know, I asked myself the same thing. Should we be worried about something more? But, I did actually talk to my doctor about it at my last physical and she’s not worried at all. We both think I’m completely sane. Just too busy.
I can’t even sit in church without running through a mental list in my mind of all the things I need to do. Sometimes I even sneak off to the bathroom to send a quick email or respond to a text. I know! That’s awful! But, I feel like if I don’t do it right away, I will forget. But then I come back and pray.
I am ashamed to say that sometimes I even get my phone out in the middle of church. Maybe people will think I’m just doing God things on my phone. I always sit out in the entranceway where they don’t have the hymnals, so when a real Catholic rocker is being sung and played, I Google the lyrics quickly on my phone so I can sing along at the top of my lungs. Yes, I also feel very sorry for whatever stranger is sitting next to me in church. I’m not a great singer. On one occasion, someone actually got up and moved. I honestly think it was because of my singing.
I was in the grocery store today and the woman ringing my things up was going so slow. I was just standing there, watching her ring things up at a snail’s pace, thinking about all the other things I need to do and all of the things I could be accomplishing during this time. So I whipped out my phone to respond to a quick work email.
Does anybody else else’s life look like this? Are there people who actually just do one thing at a time? People who aren’t always stressed about the next thing on the list? People who accomplish everything they need to in a day while only doing one thing at a time?
But sometimes I drop the ball. Sometimes I forget something important. My supervisor called me on Tuesday a couple weeks ago and said she was thinking that it didn’t make much sense for me to drive to Raleigh on Thursday so I don’t have to.
Ummmm… Was I supposed to go to Raleigh on Thursday? Did I miss something important? Obviously. But, I played it off and acted very gracious that I did not have to drive to Raleigh on Thursday.
I recently had jury duty, which I was all pissed off about because I had a million things to do. They said no phones were allowed so you had to leave it in the car. At first I panicked. I brought a book in with me and, after being nervous about all I was missing for the first half hour, I actually just sat there and read my book. It was kind of luxurious. Part of me was hoping jury duty would last the whole week. But it didn’t.
I have a friend in my book club who reads a whole book in one day. She said she just starts in the morning and she takes a break for lunch. She just spends the whole day reading. What?!?! When does she clean her house? Maybe not everyone has to clean their house three times a day like I do. But, I’m so jealous of a day to do nothing but read.
I should probably pay better attention to things. I should probably slow down. I should probably put some things off until tomorrow.
I can easily blame it on being a single mom with four jobs and demanding pets but those are really just excuses. I’m going to try to quit multitasking. Right after I Swiffer the floor, while brushing my teeth and folding this quick load of laundry. Or maybe I will just try to quit tomorrow. Or in 20 years. I mean, isn’t just thinking about it a good first step?
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