Let Us Get Rid Of This Menace Called Multitasking And Live Happier And More Productive Lives

Multitasking is the scourge of our lives today as women, and it is expected that we do many things well and efficiently. Is this really what we want?

I had never heard of this terminology when I was a kid back in the 80’s and 90’s. I don’t know when and how this word has crept into our lives but everyone seems to have become a multitasker and a proud one at that.

Of course we had multitaskers before. Umm…our mothers. But they were never called that, they are just mothers, they are born to do all those thousand and one things at the same time and look serene and calm too. I am not talking about these true-blue multitasking angels….

The present state is not enjoyed at all. Everything revolves around the future. What we are going to do tomorrow, a week after or a month later, is what sounds more important than what is current. (No wonder we have so many ADHD cases being reported now).The more number of things we can do in a short duration gives us the euphoria of accomplishment.

All this is probably just to fill the void we feel inside and to prove it to ourselves of our self- worth. Doing just a few things is just not good enough anymore.

Have you ever gotten up from your study to water the plants and then on your way saw the plates lying in the middle of the living room, so picked them up to drop them on the dining table, and then found the dining table to be a mess and stopped to clear it, and in the middle of clearing the mess found your pen you have been searching all along, and with that went back to your study wondering what you had come out for? At the end neither the plants get watered nor the dining table mess gets cleared….There are many such instances we could quote from our everyday lives.

What happened to the slow pace and unhurried ways of our earlier days?  Summers spent day-dreaming, gardening, learning a new hobby not to perfect it but for the love of learning something new or seeing something grow. These things need not be scheduled or put under the itinerary heading ‘vacation time’; it should be part of our regular everyday scheme of things.

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Somewhere down the line, I have come to despise this term multitasking, and see it as a threat to creativity and originality. This word is slowly wreaking havoc in many households. Women are the ones bearing the brunt of this so called menace. They are expected to be superwomen juggling work and family life with finesse. No one is able to even fathom the crushing load of work that has to be done to keep things running like clockwork. And God forbid if it shows, then you are just not efficient enough.

Who do you think is responsible for creating such high expectations out of us? Let’s prioritize and do what is most important to us and give it our best, not for any recognition, but for our satisfaction. Do less but efficiently. Live in the moment and cherish whatever that is that you are doing. Once you put your heart and soul to anything you do, the need to over-achieve will vanish and peace will set-in.

Published here earlier.

Image source: Flickr, for representational purposes only.

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