So, we all know better than to talk on the phone or text while driving. But I think it's time some lesser-known hazards got some publicity, since I seem to have committed most of them this week.
On the home front, thinking about what to pack in your lunch while making breakfast can cause you to pour hot water over your breakfast cereal instead of your teabag. I'm not sure whether to blame that one on multi-tasking or lack of caffeine, however.
Then there are the drinking problems. The first one is actually a pretty well known hazard- reading the blogs of funny people can cause you to spray liquids on your computer. This is bad for the computer. It's also sometimes related to the issue of breathing when you should be swallowing or vice versa.
Also, trying to unravel a knotty work problem while drinking coffee can cause you (or at least me) to pour it down the front of my shirt. For some reason this is especially likely if one is wearing light-colored clothes. What do you mean, 'what was in the coffee?'-- cream and sugar. What did you think was in the coffee? I was working, okay?
Then we move onto crafting...last night I spent ten minutes trying to undo a knot in my working yarn before I realized that I was only three inches from the end of the skein, and could just cut it off. (Okay, I'm also thrifty.) And then dropping back several rows to fix a stitch that 'looked funny' before I realized that that was the stitch where I'd started the new skein. (Reading email and knitting just don't seem to go together at all for me.)
We've already established that drinking is a problem while pondering tricky work issues. Eating isn't good either. No, not due to spills. Today, I ate the stem of my apple. My thought processes at the time went something like, "...that tolerance isn't going to work, what was the customer thinking...why is this apple so tough and woody-tasting?" (Fortunately I figured it out before I swallowed.)
So, am I going to stop multitasking? Um, no, not completely. There's always so much to do, and not enough time to do it. But I may start de-stemming the apples when I pack my lunch...
What are your best multi-tasking stories?
No, I don't have any new FOs yet. What was your first clue?
It'll take me a moment. I'm still laughing at yesterday's line about rich people being eccentric rather than crazy. (My father was an art dealer, dealing with--'nuff said.) But when I come up with a good story I'll let you know!
ReplyDeleteLOL...not awake enough to think of a story, but your's got a grin out of me. Eating the stem takes the cake in my book.
ReplyDeleteI find myself crossing vocabularies when I'm multitasking. Like when I'm knitting and watching a TV show/movie and petting one of the kitties, and someone asks me about something unrelated to any of said activities, and I reply (quite casually and with no sense of irony) something along the lines of "I'll purl the cat in the next commercial break." Followed by a slightly confused look when everyone else in the room cracks up. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteCar keys in the fridge, milk in the cupboard, cereal on the table.
ReplyDelete