multi-tasking!

Is this the right forum for this? Not sure!

I can't help but mention this topic. I think boomer women invented it and I wish we never did.

How many women are pros at this?

Any examples?

My office is in my home so I work, do laundry, make dinner, and play secretary for everyone in the house by answering the 100 phone calls we receive daily.

I talk on the phone while folding laundry, cleaning, cooking, gardening... just so I can steal a couple minutes with my sisters or friends.

This is bad, but I find myself calling people I need to catch up with while I'm driving. It's a time saver. Please tell me I'm nuts...Maybe I'll listen and stop this craziness.

Anyone else multi-task? Please say yes!

Of course! However, having caller ID on my computer helps with the phone messages, (CallWave.com). I also keep my cell phone next to the computer with a headset and talk, write and eat Oreo's all at one time. So yeah, I do it.

Hey, I have a recumbent bike. It's kind of like a recliner with pedals. My husband fixed a thing that my laptop velcros to and connected a phone line nearby. I've discovered that I can email, talk on the phone, exercise, watch television, drink a coke and eat a pizza all at once.
Doesn't do a thing for my figure, but it's great for the rest of me.
Onward.
smile

And corporate America uses it as one of their biggest buzz words thinking they invented it. Women have been multi-tasking since the beginning of time. Boomers sure did it. I know I did in the early 70s and 80s raising kids. Laundry, shopping, doctor appointments, cooking, sewing, dropping kids off here and there, picking up dry cleaning and taking the dog to the vet. All in a days work. Still do it now, but with a full-time job, my writing and all my hobbies and a husband who helps a lot.

I'd say that my office is my multi-task room. I do my writing there, make up lists for the week, give and receive phone calls while on the computer, do some organizing of the room while I'm waiting on incoming phone calls or email, write out bills and do some spot cleaning in near-by rooms.

Saves time and I get a lot done. We boomers know how to save time and organize our days...

smile, what a visual. I love it!

Smile,

That's what I call "cool multi-tasking!"

Way to go....

I've been multi tasking for so long I wouldn't know how to spend one leisure moment I might find in a day. Cooking meals ahead, some time as many as three different ones. Laundry, computer, telephones, two of them, different numbers...Feeding and watering ALL my fostered animals and my own, paying bills, arranging my plants, re-potting etc. Doing hair, nails is actually a treat for me after soaking in a tub. Good God, no wonder I feel frazzled half the time....

So they call it multi tasking. Like the name. I tried to tell my family women can do five things at once. They didn't believe I think because men don't have a clue.
I turn on the TV, do my crafts, eat, play with kitten and clean up afterwards am always thinking about something too. Or cleaning house with dishwasher on. cleaning elsewhere listening to something and talking on the telephone,playing with kitten.
Maggie

I've always thought it would be intersting to write down every little task I do in a day, but I've never had the time to do such a menial thing!

last year when I was house interior painting (still not done ) I kept a notepad and pen nearby so I could stop and write a line or two of poetry whenever it came to me. Painting is so Zen it freed my mind for writing.

I know what you mean about the zen of painting, Meredith. It can be hard to detatch from the all the business of "doing" and "thinking about doing" to leave space for poetry. A purely physical activity like house painting or walking can do it. Sylvia Plath baked.

It's a sad fact that those of us coming of age in the late sixties early seventies were told we could have it all. They didn't tell us we'd have to do it all to have it all. I get up at 5am and by 11 have put in a full day and am whipped, but still seldom go to bed before 11pm. No wonder so many of us are on medication for something or other. And do any of you ever feel guilty if you actually sit still and do nothing? I do. I have 3 kids, 2 dogs, 1 spouse, 2 houses, 1 job. Multi task is the pc way to say indentured servitude! I tried to take some time off of work recently, not to go away, but to get my house in order. Everyday one of the kids would say, what are your plans for today. By the end of the week of taxi service, housecleaning, laundry, repairs, I just wanted one day to sit by my pool and read a book. My family seems to think it's crazy for mom to just be still. Do I sound like a whiner? Yes? Then Dots, this is in the right category.

Kathryn, what all of us need is more time...nevermind. We'd fill that too!

A girlfriend and I have been having this discussion. Men cannot multi-task. Only women are able to do this. For instance: If my husband is getting dressed and needs to speak, he stops dressing until he's finished speaking. When he's driving and speaking, the speed keeps getting slower and slower.

When I worked as an elementary secretary, I sometimes couldn't believe all the things I would be doing at once! Taking a temperature, bandaging a knee, answering the phone, counting money and keeping the computer updated with lunch numbers and the such.

I think it's a special gift God gave to women so we can take care of the things in the world that need taken care of.

I can also talk on the phone and type something different at the same time.

Anyone have that story about the Mom who says she is going to bed, then picks up dirty laundry, does the dishes, feeds the pets, etc., etc. Perfect example of how busy a woman's life is.