Here I go!
These first few posts are going to be somewhat experimental, at least until I figure all this template stuff out. I've decided to begin by republishing some blogs I wrote a while back when I was blogging for Savvy Women's Magazine (SWM). I wrote for the mag for just about two years. Feel free to check out their archives for all my old posts.
Anyway, this one of those old SWM blogs. It's on...well, you'll see what's it's about when you read it.
***
These first few posts are going to be somewhat experimental, at least until I figure all this template stuff out. I've decided to begin by republishing some blogs I wrote a while back when I was blogging for Savvy Women's Magazine (SWM). I wrote for the mag for just about two years. Feel free to check out their archives for all my old posts.
Anyway, this one of those old SWM blogs. It's on...well, you'll see what's it's about when you read it.
***
To
Multi-task or Not to Multi-task?
That is the question. Before I provide you with my answer to that
query, I'd like to announce a major discovery.
A couple of days ago, I found this
really cool blog called Rocketboom. The site describes itself as "a daily
international news program based in New York City" that provides "a
wide range of information and commentary from top news stories to contemporary
internet culture." Having had a
good look at the site, I'd say that's a fairly accurate description. They did leave out two important points,
though. One, they failed to mention that
the site features videos. And two, they forgot
the part about how much fun the blog is.
This week's Rocketboom video offering
is Ellie Rountree's "6 Gadgets to Help You Multi-task in Comfort." Having watched it a couple of times now, I've
come to the conclusion that I really like the "multi-tasking chair"
and the Sony Sountina speaker system.
(Sorry for that spoiler.)
Now, to get back to the question
I posed in my opening. I asked it
because I wanted you to think about multi-tasking. I know that the sort of lives we live demand
that we do learn how to do it, but frankly, I'm philosophically against
multi-tasking, as a practice.
Those who argue that we should
turn multi-tasking into an art form are really saying that we should squeeze
every ounce of productivity out of ourselves and never let a single moment go
to waste. Actually, I think that sounds
unhealthy and would, on the contrary, advocate that everyone get a little
better at loafing (or kicking back or decompressing or however you want to say
it) without feeling guilty about not always being at peak efficiency. After all, humans are not machines and we
shouldn't try to imitate them.
Plus, too many of us are already
spread too thin. What we don't need to
do is behave in ways that cause us to "fragment" or
"dilute" even more than we already have. Rather than doing five things at once (and
probably not doing any of those masterfully), we need to learn to focus and
concentrate.
Gosh, I'm probably sounding like
some kind of Buddhist or something.