Multitasking

Whoever introduced the practice must be either an insomniac or a sufferer of ADD. In any event, he succeeded and how – he has all of us running around in circles juggling multiple tasks.

My father hated what he called my ‘grasshopper mentality’. ‘Finish one thing at a time and see that it is complete before you move on to the next thing,’ was his frequent and fervent exhortation. This was in reaction to the many incomplete tasks in open view – a dress to be ‘finished’, a letter left half written, dusting abandoned in the cause of a treasure hunt (usually for keys!), a book left opened and overturned to be returned to when able. My father was a tidy person and at the end of the day, everything had to be put away. An early riser, systematic and efficient, he would go from one task to the next in order of importance, starting with early morning tea, Mass and thence through the day till just before bedtime when he would see to it that his apparel for the next morning was laid out ready to wear. This apparel would include firmly starched, pristine white cotton shirt and drill pants and brown shoes that had been visited by ‘spit and polish’. That was over twenty years ago when time seemed more accommodating!

Today, the clock moves around ever more rapidly and twenty-four hours never seem enough even when sleep time is cut down to six or even five from the mandatory eight.

At work, I learned by experience to be an octopus with all tentacles in simultaneous play: I became adept at answering four phones which made it a habit to ring at the same time, while dealing with the boss, while rummaging in a file for that important document, while editing a manuscript on the computer, while faxing the ‘must go immediately’ message, while sipping a tepid cup of coffee, while opening the mail, while summoning the driver, while signing for a delivery, while suppressing the urgent call of the loo! Phew!!

I thought retirement would bring the benefit of leisure and a clock which could be ignored. How mistaken!

I now stir pots on the stove, while answering the phone, while running the bath water, while answering the door, while dusting the furniture, while instructing the maid, while paying the delivery boy, while priming the washing machine, while ironing my clothes, while checking the smses, while typing my blog. And yes, I have unfinished bits and pieces of needlework lying about and my current reading upturned for when I can return to it. My work table is littered with ‘to do’ post-its which draw my attention to tasks as yet undone. A far cry from the knot in the hanky or the thread bow on the little finger to jog memory – those were useful in a time when you had to remember only one thing at a time!

Is the world really spinning faster? Or, is it our resolute race to the finish line that is making it go round at such mind-boggling speed?