Man-Tasking

November 7th, 2011, posted by Aimee

Recently I read somewhere that scientific research has finally proven something most of us have suspected for years – that multitasking is not really efficient or effective. The so-called experts in this article essentially called for a return to a more focused approach to tasks.

Uh, okay. Try telling that to my employer who bills my time in 15 minute increments and lists “ability to multitask” in my job description. Or to my husband, who expects me to pay all the bills, buy all the groceries, throw together dinners and bring home my share of the bacon (cue, “and never, never, never let him forget he’s a man …!)

Sadly, I can hardly recall the early days of my life when I had the luxury of dedicating my time and intellectual energy to one assignment at a time. In a day and time when a typical lunch hour for me is spent wolfing down a salad while listening on mute to a conference call and toggling back and forth between Twitter, Facebook and Jezebel, it’s comical that I once was heckled for reading pretentious novels on my lunch hour as an intern in my first job. (What the heck’s a novel, anyway? I only read magazines now.)

I think it may be getting a bit out of hand for me, though. Just take a look at a few of the activities I have combined with varying degrees of success within the past week:

o Searched for a cat sitter and researched our next vacation while watching the “X Factor” and updating my timesheet.

o Browsed magazines and listened to “The View” on the eliptical machine at the gym

o Made phone calls and sent texts to friends while grocery shopping with my kid in the cart playing his Leapster

o Took two client calls and checked in with my boss outside the gym while my son was taking Tae Kwon Do (on my day off)

o Listened to my husband’s work dilemma and offered advice while scrolling through Twitter to get ideas for this blog

o Scheduled a doctor, dentist and hair appointments while on mute during long conference calls

o Wrote this blog while glancing up and down at a Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion on mute

You get the picture. It’s frenetic, and I am sure your life is the same way.

Interestingly, my husband – and I would venture to suggest most husbands from what I hear from my friends – does not follow the whole multitasking way of life at all. In fact, he seems physically and emotionally incapable of juggling more than one task at a time. It drives me nuts! When he is waiting for his teapot to boil, why doesn’t he start making toast, or comb Tav’s hair? When he’s watching that surf contest, couldn’t he fold a few pieces of laundry or pay bills? How is it he can watch episodes of that dumb British car show without feeling the need to check Facebook and the weather forecast at the same time?

Nope, he’s proudly single-focused. He cannot see why in the world I need to achieve five things at once, why I drive myself crazy with making lists and checking things off those lists. He just takes life step at a time.  I call it “Man-Tasking,” which you can characterize one of two ways. On the positive side, “Man Tasking” could be seen as the ability to focus on one activity at a time. Of course for me, I would define it as “the absolute inability of a man to juggle more than one task at a time.” Semantics, yes.

What are your thoughts? Is this a man/woman thing or a “married to a Womo” thing or neither? Is Nate a freak? Am I?

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