Multitasking - Something really to 'task'about!!

I write this blog amidst listening to my favorites from Illayaraja and waiting for my airline operator’s call. You should have got it right; my flight at Boston got delayed.

When you read my first line carefully, you should know that am ’Multitasking’. In this generation of ‘mobile’ world, almost 99% of the people living in cities or some big towns ‘multitask’. Something serious to think about.

The dictionary meaning of Multitasking is doing one or more things at any given time. We have various ways of multitasking but this blog is more interested in Multitasking while we talk over phones, be it mobile or landline. Because, I hate myself as well as the other doing it.

We talk to our friends and beloved ones over phone and try to do many things in parallel, like computing, making a cup of coffee, combing hair, shaping nails, even changing our underwear.(Oh god! I never tried that one) and what not.

The earth itself multitasks; it revolves itself and around the sun simultaneously.
There are other examples from the Mother Nature for multitasking. But these are things that we don’t have control on and they are routine activities.

There was my friend (addicted to mobile) who, after listening to my lecture, said that he’s gonna stop, or atleast try to stop, multitasking. He said he will not see the road while driving as he thought as a task driving included only steering. You know what would have happened to him.

There is another friend of mine who talks on her mobile at work relentlessly. One day she came to me and said she will stop doing multitasking like this. From the next day onwards I could see her only talking and not working.

It is being said that, it requires minimum 10 to 15 min to get refocused into any task even if we think we can multitask. Our brain can do only one activity at a time.

One day I called my friend when she was browsing. I didn’t know that she was browsing. The replies I got were mmm…yy…mmmm……You know how frustrated I can be. When I told her that she was not listening me…she said that she was listening to me. When I asked her what I was telling, she told me something that I didn’t tell her. Actually, I switched on my Mp3 player and didn’t talk at all.

We need to really justify when we do multitasking and there are lot of risks involved. I called my colleague when he was shaving. The topic (was about a girl) got so interested, he forgot that he was shaving. Apparently he lost only his mustache in the process, but you can loose your life too.

So guys, please do a rethink if we talk on mobile, whether to talk or proceed with the activity on hand and talk later. It is upto you.

My flight is ready to be boarded.