There she was in the bookstore staff break room: watching a DVD, talking to a friend on the phone, eating and reading a magazine--all at the same time! I watched this exercise in multitasking with utter amazement. How is it possible to be present to each task in such a situation? For sure, I was acutely aware of age. I am 64 and she is 21. Is my generation as comfortable with multi-tasking as her generation apparently is?
Even during the day, as a bookseller, I wear an earpiece and there are simultaneous conversations occurring on it while I am working with customers. Often I just yank it out because I have trouble doing more than one thing at a time.
Is this because I am a guy? I read somewhere that women are more prone to multitasking because of their multiple responsibilities in work and at home. That sounds plausible. But I am thinking that age is now more of a factor. Listen to the while doing homework. Watch TV while reading . . . . . .
It now seems that in America multi-tasking is the big thing. And yet, I am happiest and feel most inner harmony when I can give full focused concentrated attention to single tasks.
This becomes clear to me when I am involved in my other part time job as a cleaner of downtown residences. I love this work. The reasons are many. I can see a concrete difference in the looks of the house when I leave. I enjoy the people I clean for. Sometimes the activity of cleaning houses makes me feel cleaner.
The business of cleaning in silence involves working out strategies for reaching a goal (a beautiful polished and clean home). You can't do this by juggling three things at a time. It is only accomplished by one small task after another. Dust the baseboard. Polish the table. Disinfect the toilet. Vacuum the carpet . . . .the tasks are multiple but they cannot be done in groupings but only one after another.
So cleaning has taught me the wisdom and discipline of one thing after another. Of one thing at a time. This is how life works.
In silence I clean. I am present to single tasks aimed at a final goal. I take it one thing at a time.
You can't have it all at once.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
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2 comments:
Daniel,
You have just revealled why the theory of "multi-tasking" is debunkable. We work well when we are heading steadily in the same direction (slow as a pilgrimage). It is the conflict of our culture to subdivide until infinity (similar to the ancient greek theory of the atom). Today, we are a taught not to see the connection of one thing to the other. If we did see the interconnectedness than a difference world would exist.
You have made a great observation.
Your near-eastside friend-Patrick
Daniel, the other day I had a humourous first-hand experience with the dangers of multi-tasking. I was trying to use my cell phone to text-message my coworkers about Christmas party details, while also having an argument with my boyfriend via text-message. I couldn't keep up with alternating my tone between fun, excited messages to my friends, and cold, angry ones to my boyfriend. So in the end, I sent the wrong message to the wrong person, and got a reply from one of my friends/coworkers saying "Why are you not spending the holidays with me until I say I'm sorry?"
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