{"id":265,"date":"2008-02-01T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-01T11:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html"},"modified":"2008-02-01T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-01T11:27:00","slug":"multitasking-can-bite-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html","title":{"rendered":"Multitasking Can Bite You"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
Multitasking has become a way of life for many of us. Women work, care for kids, do household chores, AND, try to keep up with all the communication going on with email, cell calls, etc. Men, who are known for not being as communicative as women, are changing that with electronic devises that keep businesses functioning and people connected these days. Multitasking allows us to do a lot more. But is this a good thing?<\/p>\n

I remember when I did one thing at a time. There were no cell phones, emails, Internet distractions, text messenging, and we just ate blackberries. People talked to each other. I went to work, maybe called a friend or two when I could. Returning home meant preparing dinner, a little chatting or TV. For those of you in the Gen Y generation who don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about, those were days of less stress and often getting more things done well.<\/span><\/p>\n

I miss those times!<\/span><\/p>\n

Lately I\u2019ve heard several talk show hosts discuss that multitasking has been found to often be more of a curse than a blessing<\/span>. My initial reaction was \u201cthat\u2019s ridiculous!\u201d But I listened and thought about the multitasking lifestyle I developed over the years to fit more into my days. It allows little time for just chilling. I\u2019m doing stuff till I go to sleep. Then I have trouble going to sleep as I lie there planning all the things I must do the next day. Relaxation has become rare. <\/p>\n

The main point of the curse theory is often true\u2014some quality of work is sacrificed in the flurry of secondary activities.<\/span> <\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember when I began to be a proud multitasker. It\u2019s become almost impossible to just sit back and watch a movie at home without my laptop, magazine, mail to sort through or bills to pay. Talking on the phone usually includes a secondary task. I do squats and toe tips while I brush my teeth and write with one eye on the emails coming in. All this in an effort to get more done in my waking hours!<\/p>\n

In the attempt to get more into my days, my work has begun to suffer, but I\u2019m usually too busy to notice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since my multitasking began, I\u2019ve made many efforts to take my laptop to a coffee shop or the park when the weather permits. Now I realize I love it so much because I\u2019m way more productive when I\u2019m out, especially in a place with no wireless signal. I write and write with no distractions. Happily! At home the phone rings, emails come in, I think of things I should do in the middle of my writing. Three hours of that leaves me frustrated about not getting enough writing done. And I often have to go over it more than I used to because writing without 100% attention creates more mistakes and unclear thoughts. <\/p>\n

I also get more writing done on holidays, when businesses are closed and emails and calls slow down. I once stayed home on Thanksgiving just to write, and it was worth it! So now I\u2019m asking myself, <\/p>\n

\u201cIs multitasking really helping me?\u201d<\/span> <\/p>\n

When I heard it referred to as a curse, I became more aware of how trying to juggle lots of things isn\u2019t making me more efficient. It sometimes makes me sloppy. While multitasking allows for many things in a day, it\u2019s hard to give full attention to any of them. I\u2019ve become a real good juggler, but had to ask myself if it\u2019s worth the downsides:<\/span><\/p>\n

* When you juggle simultaneous tasks, you always have to be \u201con.\u201d The higher energy it generates doesn\u2019t allow for relaxing easily. <\/p>\n

* It\u2019s hard to concentrate fully on any one ball in the air when you\u2019re juggling several. When your attentions dances from one thing to another, nothing gets your full attention. Work can actually suffer instead of being more productive.<\/p>\n

* Juggling many tasks can wear you out. Some days when I have a lot going on at once I feel much more weary by the evening.<\/p>\n

* Studies show that all the things we juggle throughout the day puts us on overload, which our brains aren\u2019t wired for. Computers crash when they get on overload. It can happen to us too.<\/p>\n

* Trying to process many more things takes its toll on memory. People are becoming more forgetful in an effort to pack more in. That becomes counterproductive. <\/p>\n

* Multitasking feeds an inability to say no to requests for you to do something. You might see it as another ball you\u2019ll have to juggles instead of something you don\u2019t have time for.<\/p>\n

* Communicating electronically depersonalizes both business and personal relationships. It can also create more misunderstandings that take more time to clarify. Joking and expressions can come across wrong in an email or text message. I used to love to talk to friends on the phone. Now I mainly email to save time. Yet it\u2019s not the same! <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve experienced all of this but am trying to have some semblance of keeping my life simple. Awareness is the first step. Pay attention to how many different things you juggle in a day. Like someone on a diet who writes down everything she or he eats, list everything you do.<\/span> Become more conscious of everything and prioritize what\u2019s more important. On Monday I\u2019ll post some suggestions for finding a healthy version of multitasking, which I\u2019ve been trying since my consciousness was raised.<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed my post, please click on the bookmark and write a short review at some of the sites, especially Stumbleupon. Thanks!

\"AddThis<\/a> var addthis_pub = ‘wryter’;
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Multitasking has become a way of life for many of us. Women work, care for kids, do household chores, AND, try to keep up with all the communication going on with email, cell calls, etc. Men, who are known for not being as communicative as women, are changing that with electronic devises that keep businesses…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nice-people-can-finish-first"],"yoast_head":"\nMultitasking Can Bite You - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Multitasking Can Bite You - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Multitasking has become a way of life for many of us. Women work, care for kids, do household chores, AND, try to keep up with all the communication going on with email, cell calls, etc. Men, who are known for not being as communicative as women, are changing that with electronic devises that keep businesses…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-01T11:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R6NJuTQunfI\/AAAAAAAAAL4\/qeb8BcmlCQc\/s200\/05-01-05juggling.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Daylle Deanna Schwartz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Multitasking Can Bite You - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Multitasking Can Bite You - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","og_description":"Multitasking has become a way of life for many of us. Women work, care for kids, do household chores, AND, try to keep up with all the communication going on with email, cell calls, etc. Men, who are known for not being as communicative as women, are changing that with electronic devises that keep businesses…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html","og_site_name":"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","article_published_time":"2008-02-01T11:27:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R6NJuTQunfI\/AAAAAAAAAL4\/qeb8BcmlCQc\/s200\/05-01-05juggling.jpg"}],"author":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html","name":"Multitasking Can Bite You - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R6NJuTQunfI\/AAAAAAAAAL4\/qeb8BcmlCQc\/s200\/05-01-05juggling.jpg","datePublished":"2008-02-01T11:27:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-01T11:27:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/4250884f68a588907744baa491f9df35"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R6NJuTQunfI\/AAAAAAAAAL4\/qeb8BcmlCQc\/s200\/05-01-05juggling.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R6NJuTQunfI\/AAAAAAAAAL4\/qeb8BcmlCQc\/s200\/05-01-05juggling.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/02\/multitasking-can-bite-you.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Multitasking Can Bite You"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/","name":"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Daylle Deanna Schwartz","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/4250884f68a588907744baa491f9df35","name":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/83b\/83ba6e1423377712fe408a5fab971bfax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/83b\/83ba6e1423377712fe408a5fab971bfax96.jpg","caption":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz"},"description":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz is a speaker, self-empowerment counselor, best-selling author of 15 books, including Nice Girls Can Finish First (McGraw-Hill), All Men Are Jerks Until Proven Otherwise and founder of The Self-Love Movement\u2122 where she's giving away her 13th book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways, a She's appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, Howard Stern, and Good Morning America and has been quoted in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Marie Claire, and Men\u00b9s Health. After being a consummate People Pleaser who felt unworthy of getting her own needs met for many years, Daylle found a path of self-love that enabled her to build her self-esteem and reinvent herself into a dual career. She learned to get taken seriously without being overtly assertive when she became one of the first women to start an independent record label (on a dare!) and learned to play ball nicely and successfully in an industry dominated by men. To help independent musicians empower themselves, Daylle writes music business books for Billboard\/Random House, including the very popular Start & Run Your Own Record Labe and I Don't Need a Record Deal! Daylle's books have been translated into over 10 languages and are popular around the world. She speaks for colleges, organizations and corporations. Through her company, Project Self-Empowerment, Daylle creates programs and materials to help people empower themselves. One goal is to raise the money to self-publish her book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways and give it away for free in colleges and through organizations, to give thanks for all her blessings. Daylle uses her writing and speaking to help others find the kind of contentment and empowerment that she has.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/author\/dschwartz"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}