Multitasking & Finding Quality Time

I have a friend who never telephones me unless she is doing something else at the same time. Sometimes she’s eating dinner, sometimes she’s driving somewhere, sometimes she’s doing housework, and sometimes she’s washing dishes. Often she becomes so preoccupied with the other thing she is doing that she forgets what she is saying or what I have answered, and the sounds of chewing, traffic, running water, or clanging dishes are very distracting. This woman is a good friend and I’m very fond of her, but I wish JUST ONCE she would devote her full attention to the phone call. I doubt that this will ever happen, though, because she is very much into multitasking. And she’s always feeling frazzled and in a rush.

Although we all multitask sometimes because we have to… like getting dinner while holding a fussy baby… the recent trend to deliberately plan to do more than one task at the same time is, I think, part of the reason why so many people feel pushed beyond their limits. When you’re trying to do a bit of this and a bit of that and trying to keep everything together and organized in your mind at the same time, you’re not giving your full attention to anything. As the Roman philosopher Publilius Syrus said, “To do two things at once is to do neither.” For anyone interested in adopting a voluntary simplicity lifestyle, eliminating multitasking is a wonderful first step.

Think about it. In the same way that multitasking takes away your full attention from what you are trying to do, it also robs you of the enjoyment you could derive from each single task. And if you’re skeptical that there is pleasure to be found in such things, try devoting yourself to one small project and just let yourself BE in the moment of what you are doing. If you have children, involve them too and use a project as a means to connect with them. Make this a habit and your life will change.

Many parents talk about scheduling quality time. I’m a firm believer that you can’t make quality time happen, and that quality time is a direct result of the quantity time you spend with your children doing the ordinary things that make up our lives. When you interact with a child but are multitasking, with your mind busy on something else, the child knows. When you spend time with your children doing things that give you both a sense of satisfaction and productivity, without trying to do anything else at the same time, quality time will happen on its own.

Filed Under Personal Development, Self Help, Downshifting, Compassionate Living, Simple Living, Voluntary Simplicity