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Three years ago, my sister had a new born baby. It was her first baby and all the family was happy for her. I went to visit her one sunny day, when her baby boy was about 3 months old. She opened the door and gave me a warm greeting and asked me to come in. I saw she was very busy doing many things. She had her baby on her hand and was cooking dinner while watching the news on TV and putting the laundry in the washing machine with her cell phone in her other hand talking to a friend. She managed to greet me warmly in the midst of all that. I was surprised for few moments to see how she's managing to do all those tings at the same time...After all, I've always heard that women are very good with multitasking and I was looking at a solid proof of that right there and then.
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But then, when I looked closer at my sister standing there like a heroine doing all those things, I saw that she was not really paying attention to the news on TV even though she was looking at it. There was a piece of news about social work that I was sure would have grabbed her attention but it passed her by just like that. I guess she was really focusing on the conversation with her friend which from the little I could make out of it, was about her friend complaining about her husband and my sister was giving some tips for her to improve her marriage. Very important topic.
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When I had a closer look at the washing machine, I didn't see much going on there, she just put the dirty laundry inside it and hit the "On" button and that was it. Her baby boy on her shoulder? She was just holding him and not even looking at him. But holding him kept him from crying so it looked like she was spending time with him while she wasn't. What about the cooking? That needs concentration and focus, right? Actually, not if it's the hundredth time you're making a certain meal and you know exactly how to make it with your eyes closed. It's more like driving a car from home to work for the 100th time. You can drive without paying any attention to the driving process, and you only focus on the road, signals and other cars around.
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So, what's my point here? My point is that there is no such a thing as multitasking...I say it's a myth. You can only do one thing at a time with full concentration and full attention. Anything else you might be doing in the background is called "background" tasking, where you don't need to focus and you use your subconscious mind to achieve it. Driving a car, cooking a meal that you are an expert on, skimming the newspaper, listening to radio (without focus) and so on...Those are all tasks that you don't need to focus on unless you want to put your full attention on any of them.
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Ladies, nothing against you, but you're not multitaskers....nobody is. You need more proof? Ok, here's a question I would like to ask you all. If you answer Yes, to this question, then I will change my position on multi tasking. I will admit there is multi-tasking and women are good at it :) If you answer No, then welcome to the "multitasking myth busters club".
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My Question is:
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Can you write a very important email to one of your clients solving a major problem that this client had with your company while at the same time talking on your phone with another client trying to persuade him to buy more of your newly developed products?
Remember, the key phrase here is "at the same time". Answering this question honestly will put the debate of "Multitasking" to an end. I still like visiting my sister and seeing her taking care of her baby while doing all those other things...she always manages to give me my favorite pudding.
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