The Dangers of Multitasking

Fasten your seatbelt. Stay away from dark parking lots at night. Never order anything with garlic at a business lunch. We're so cautious when we leave the house, but are often blind to an equally perilous activity, one that lurks within our own homes...multitasking!

Yes, multitasking is a necessary evil. You need three of you just to keep up. I get it. At any given moment, I may be doing laundry, vacuuming the living room and trying to decide what to wear to tomorrow's client meeting. All while listening for the doorbell so I won't miss the UPS guy. But when you divide your attention among several tasks, can you give any of them the attention they deserve? Chronic multitasking can turn your once-sharp mind into oatmeal. (Oh dear -- did I leave the oatmeal cookies in the oven again?) Chores that once seemed routine may suddenly feel more complicated than the SATs. Your head swims as you try to remember how to operate the blender, partly because you're also making a mental grocery list and trying to decide what to buy your sister for her birthday. This is how those innocent but embarrassing mistakes occur, like when you put your keys in the freezer and the ice tray in your purse.

Sure, we're all busy, but does that mean we have to drive ourselves crazy every day? Heck no! I think we're trying to do too much. Does dinner have to look like something out of Martha Stewart Living? No -- it just has to be edible. Does your lawn have to be the greenest on the block? Do you have to accept every dinner party invitation. Probably not.

So join me in a pledge to banish multitasking once and for all. Repeat after me: Starting today, I will not be a slave to the demands of modern life. I will live for the moment! (As soon as I run the dishwasher and put away the laundry. And while I'm at it, I should scrub the bathtub, decide what to have for dinner...)