Day 5 - 15 -- Myth of Multitasking

Wow! Monday involved a continued flurry of activity. Two classes taught including the one that starts at 8:15 AM -- on a Monday. Meetings with students followed by trying to catch up on the deluge of e-mail that arrived in the past 36 hours and invigilating a deferred final exam. Two technology difficulties of last week seem to have been fixed, though technology continued to argue with me by presenting new ways to disrupt my work flow. One remains unexplained with files that sent to print that didn't show up and then an hour later magically appeared in the printer queue. I expect the other "failed" print jobs will show up in the next day or two. Very frustrating when time is of the essence. The other issue will need to be checked on again tomorrow to see if my idea of a simple fix will actually work. All of this occurred in a very cold environment since the heating in the three offices connected to the same sensor are always bitterly cold even if it warms up outside. This will mean a call to the  maintenance department if there is a moment to do so tomorrow. At the end of the day, though, several things were begun finally with some even completed. So, the day wasn't a total write off.

Frenetic activities that seem to be endless and even overlap and pile up on each other can take a lot of energy to navigate. Each task and individual involved is important, yet with so many happening simultaneously keeping it all straight is miraculous. Appearing calm on the outside may help others to remain grounded rather than flying off in a different direction. A sense of humour helps, too. Even a smile can help others see that you are doing your best for them but have divided attention and things will just take a bit longer than expected. Days like this can provide evidence that multitasking is a myth invented by the convergence of many electronic devices into a single hand held unit. The human brain - even when young - cannot focus on multiple things at the same time. The lack of focus means nothing is done well -- not the goal we set for ourselves. <smile>

A couple songs ran through my head when realizing the silly pace the day had set for me. One I've used in past blogs, so I chose to share the new one. The lyrics are written below the video as some of them may not be fully understood. The singer does an impeccable job with the lyrics and phrasing of this jazz style selection. Enjoy!

Cloudburst -- Barry Manilow