Multitasking – friend or foe?

We all multi-task. Well except for maybe Men – i’m only kidding of course they drink beer and watch the footy, so there’s that. (ha!)

But seriously, multitasking. I do it all day long. I make lunches whilst also making breakfast, and coffee, and shamefully probably washing up dishes from the night before as well.

I rarely watch tv without doing something else; reading, working on the computer, scrolling social media on my phone.

Whilst driving I’m usually listening to a podcast and if I could work out how to do another something whilst sleeping I would probably do that too.

It makes me feel more productive. But does it really help?

Like when I’m cleaning the house. Does it really make me more productive when I half do every job and don’t really get to the bottom of any single one? By the end of an hour it is not uncommon for me to have put a load of washing on, half vacuumed the house only to have stopped to pick up toys, emptied clean washing onto the bed but not actually put anything away and put all the dishes into the sink to soak (only to never come back to them later).

Clearly multitasking when I’m trying to clean the house does nothing but leave me feeling like the whole process is useless because I never actually get anything done. But what about in other areas?

Am I actually helping myself or making life a whole lot harder? I’ve decided to do an experiment. I’m simplifying. Slowing down. Focusing. I want to see if doing one thing at a time actually makes me feel better and I have a sneaky suspicion the result will be feeling less rushed, and I’m hoping the whole thing will result in a general feeling of more time.

So what about you? Are you guilty of multitasking everything? Do you think it actually helps you get more done and have you ever taken the time to notice how it makes you feel?

Want to join me in my little experiment in finding out whether multitasking is really our friend or our foe?