What Multi-Tasking Says

I've been thinking about multi-tasking - the act of doing more than one thing at the same time.  It's something that most of us do quite a lot.  Multi-tasking is even something we take pride in doing well.  But is that a good thing?

I multi-task a lot.  I've come to the conclusion that that's how moms survive.  But a couple of moments lately have made me start to wonder if my multi-tasking has gone too far.  One was the other day when I was driving home from getting groceries.  I was thinking through the different things I still needed to get done that day, among which was a certain text I needed to send.  I wished I could send the text right then.  But I am a responsible driver, so I did not text while I was driving.  I waited until later.  But it made me think - why do I feel like I have to always be accomplishing something more?  Wasn't it enough that I was driving?

The other moment was this evening as I was folding diapers and scrolling through Twitter at the same time.  When I actually noticed what I was doing it made me stop and think.  At first I was a little impressed (there's that pride thing - look at me doing so many things at the same time!).  But then I wondered: Why was I scrolling through Twitter while I was folding laundry?  Maybe because I felt like folding diapers was boring and I wanted to be doing something more interesting.  I don't know, I was just doing it.  Thoughtlessly multi-tasking.

When I do multiple things at the same time, I can't give my full attention to any one of them.  Generally that doesn't cause any particular problems.  Most of the tasks in my day don't take a lot of brain power.  But my multi-tasking it is making a statement.

It's saying that it is more important to be done the thing than to be doing the thing.

Let me use food as an example.  I'll often wait to have lunch until Steven is down for his nap.  After getting my lunch ready I usually sit in the living room and eat it while playing a game on my phone or scrolling through social media.  If I'm feeling especially productive I might catch up on emails or work on my writing.  When I multi-task like that I'm saying that eating lunch is something that needs to be done (which is true) but it also says that I'm not interested in giving my attention to the process of eating lunch.  I'm not noticing the flavours and textures or thinking about everything that went into me being able to eat that food for my lunch.  I'm not fully experiencing it and I'm not fully thankful for it.  I just care about it being done, not about doing it.

This is especially a problem when we're interacting with people.  If I ask my husband about his day while also looking up something on my phone, it makes it seem like I'm just asking him because it's something that needs to be done.  He won't feel nearly as valued as he would if I asked him without multi-tasking.

But there are a lot of situations where it doesn't seem like multi-tasking would be a problem.  Laundry, dishes, sweeping, they're all things that need to be done, and they're not exactly interesting.  So why not multi-task?

But I'm challenging myself to multi-task less, and here's why:

Problem 1: We miss out on the doing.

When we multi-task we don't fully experience what we are doing.  I want to get better at living in the moment and appreciating the beauty that can be found in simple, mundane tasks.  I want to be thankful - even for the laundry and the dishes - rather than always rushing through them just because they have to be done.

Problem 2: We don't give our minds time to unwind.

Part of the appeal of multi-tasking is our culture's ever increasing need of being busy and productive.  We think that more is always better.  We're always "on", always in "go mode", and that's not healthy.  Times of quiet and rest are vital to our physical and mental health.  Choosing to do one thing at a time is a way of slowing down the pace instead of stuffing our minds full of more and more stimuli.

Problem 3: We miss out on other ways we could be using that time.

I don't know about you, but when I multi-task, one of those tasks is usually something electronic: Facebook, internet games, Pinterest, YouTube videos.  Sometimes I do try to do something more useful, like writing, but the reality is that it's usually something that I don't actually have to be doing.  It's filler.  Really addictive filler.  So I keep defaulting to it again and again.  But if I stopped defaulting maybe I would start to find better choices.  Maybe there is someone I should be praying for.  Maybe I should call someone or think through a story idea or plan supper.

So the next time I'm folding diapers, instead of mindlessly scrolling through Twitter, maybe I could pay more attention to living in the moment.  I could give my mind a break from constant input so I can think and process my day and how I'm feeling.  I could feel thankful for the ability to have clean, dry laundry, and pray for both of my wonderful boys.  A boring task could be transformed into a life-giving opportunity.

I understand that it's often a necessity to multi-task.  But just because I can doesn't always mean that I should.  I encourage you to join me in choosing to slow down and live fully in every moment that God has given us.

Maybe we shouldn't multi-task so much.