Is Multitasking Really Good for Moms?

Is Multitasking Really Good for Moms?

I have to admit, I’m a multitasker. I love to accomplish two or more things at the same time. If you were a fly on my wall, you would find me starting a load of laundry before heading out the door or cooking hamburger patties on my electric grill while I’m doing my weekly paper work at the table.

On the other hand, I don’t recall my grandmother, who was an extremely hard worker, ever doing more than one task at a time. She didn’t own much and even though most of us had new wash machines, I remember her washing her clothes in one of those old fashion wash tubs and swinging the clothes through the wringer to squeeze out the excess water. And she didn’t care for dryers either. She hung them on the line, undergarments and all. Nor did she care for the convenience of shopping at the store for a chicken ready to pop in the oven. She would scurry on out to catch one of her chickens, take his dear life and start plucking the feathers away. As much labor as she really did during the day, I really don’t remember her seeming to be overwhelmed or in a big hurry to do two or three things at once. In fact, in the evenings she sat quite happily in her rocker on her porch. She seemed to really enjoy the quiet peace of the small town she lived in. Even with company, she never seemed to have difficulty getting all her tasks done.

So, the question at stake remains, “Is multitasking really good for moms?” Are we too advanced to relax now? It seems that the more advanced our technology becomes, offering us all these time-saving gadgets, the more we seem to busy ourselves with extra tidbits of stuff to do.

I do believe as moms, we have quite a load to accomplish and mulitasking seems to become a necessity. Nevertheless, we need to be careful that we’re not taking on more than we should. From time to time we need to reevaluate our priorities and decide which tasks we can cut out or can be outsourced to others. Long ago, children were often raised as hard workers. They were required to do several chores. The family worked together as a team to farm the land. Girls knew how to cook, sew and clean by the time they were young maidens ready to be married. Moms today can find much relief from stress by training their children to work as a family team to accomplish most of the household tasks.

All in all, multitasking seems like a genious thing to do. It can help us gain some personal free time for hobbies or some fun family activities. For those moms who are also “business moms” multitasking can be very important…

Two business moms have learned to multitask while using their phones:

Linda from Best2WorkatHome.com says, “In my business we take people on overview calls where a couple of our team members talk about the company and the business: what we do and how we get paid. I put my phone on mute and speaker and then do all kinds of things. I clean or cook or read or watch tv. Whatever I need to do at that moment. With it on speaker, I have hands free and I can hear when the call is about over and I must get back to my person….sometimes I use my cell phone and call other people to set appts. while I have a person on the phone listening to an overview call.”

Carla Kroger from Daily Administration says, “I invested in a GREAT cordless headset some time ago. While calls are dialing or I am on hold I can do so many other tasks and not feel like i have wasted that time. It even has mute which often comes in handy. It was and still is a great investment.”

As a final word on multitasking, it’s still controversial whether our thought patterns and the human mind may be affected. (Click Here)to Listen to NPR’s research news on how multitasking affects human learning. Russel Poldrack, a UCLA psychology professor, speaks with Lynn Near concerning the issues of what occurs in the brain when you perform multitasking.

Please feel free to share your comments and ideas below on multitasking.

Rhonda White, MommyRevenue.com