Multitasking Is Not My Cup Of Tea

Dr. James L. Snyder

Usually, I have a lot of work on my desk, from writing to radio programs. Even though I have many projects, I can only do one at a time.

I have often wished I could multitask, which would help me get through many more projects more quickly. But that has never been my style of working. I focus on one project at a time and move on to the next when it is finished.

Some people can multitask, but that is not me. Often, it would be great if I could multitask and get a bunch of projects done at the same time. I have tried that, but it has not worked for me.

Multitasking is not my way of working.

For many years, I looked into multitasking to learn how to do it. I figured out that if I could do that, I could accomplish much more in my life. The more I studied it, the less I understood what it was all about.

When it comes to multitasking The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage is the Queen. I am not sure how many she can do at once, but it is more than I can even think of. When she is doing something, she is doing everything. I only wish I had that skill.

Now that we are retired, her multitasking has grown even bigger. Whenever I walk by her craft room, I see her doing several things at once, and I am not quite sure how she manages it.

As I learn a little more about this multitasking, I begin to understand The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage more.

For example, when she is speaking to me, I really cannot follow all that she is saying because she is talking about at least six things at the same time. In her speaking, she does not have any "periods." Everything flows together, but I do not understand multitasking, so I do not understand what she is talking about.

Often she will say, "Don't you remember what I said yesterday?"

That is completely beyond my mental scope. Because yesterday she probably said a thousand things, and I did not get a handle on any of them.

I do not know if this is true, but I read somewhere that women speak 20,000 words a day, while men speak 7,000. I am not sure where they get that, but I'm not going to doubt that for a moment. It is pretty close to reality.

The reason women speak 20,000 words to a man while he only speaks 7,000 is that they multitask while speaking. A man can never multitask while speaking, whereas a woman can multitask even while speaking.

When I am speaking, for example, I am thinking about one particular thought. I usually do not go beyond that one thought. I have noticed that when The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage is speaking, she has many thoughts at that moment. Because I cannot

multitask, I cannot figure out what she is talking about. That is what gets me into trouble all the time.

Don't get me wrong, I would sure enjoy being able to multitask like her. Of course, if I could multitask like her, we would never finish talking because we would be all over the place, not knowing exactly what we were talking about.

Often when she is talking, she will stop and say, "Did you hear what I just said?"

I do not say this, but I am thinking, "Yes, but I haven't been able to sort it out to find what you were talking about."

I listen, but I cannot keep up with everything she says at the time. Much of what she says is unrelated to each other, which is why I am often confused about what she is saying.

What she is saying is good, you can be sure, but it is not related to each other, which is why I get confused when she talks to me like that.

I try to be a thoughtful person and think before I speak. I cannot process half a dozen thoughts at once.

At my stage in life, I will probably never learn to multitask. I have tried studying that for a very long time, and I really have not discovered its secret.

I did find a secret to this multitasking in my relationship with The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. Now that I know a little bit of how she multitasks, especially when she is talking, I can pretend to understand and go along with it. It does no good for me to try to sort out what she is saying, because by the time I do, she is on to another multitasking talk.

This year, we celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary. After all those years of being married, I have discovered that marital bliss is not about agreeing on everything. Rather, it is not contesting what you do not understand at the time.

A verse of scripture came to my mind on this subject.

James 1:19, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”

This has become an important verse for me. I am trying to focus on hearing and not on speaking. The less I speak the less trouble I get into. What could be better?