Multitasking

[Firnafth]

I was watching the videos of Temple Grandin in the thread devoted to her. She mentioned inability to multitask as a common trait of autistics.

I am bad at multitasking, and often am amazed at the multitasking other people attempt to do (watching TV and doing homework, doing 3 things on the computer at once, listening to music and talking at the same time, listening to music and reading at the same time).

I can listen to music and drive or do art at the same time, but I prefer not to because these activities each deserve my complete attention. I will listen to music and do housework at the same time. In most other cases, I can only do one thing at once - so if more than one thing is going on, I'm only paying attention to one of those things.

Do you have trouble multitasking?
Can people actually focus on more than one thing at once?
Or can they just switch between things very quickly? (I can't)

 

[Droopy]

I think it's more a case of switching quickly between the two things. You couldn't properly do them both at the same time because if you did then neither would be getting your complete attention. I would say I suck at multitasking. When doing multiple things on the computer like listening to music, editing photos and talking on MSN, my speed/reaction gets slowed down dramatically.

 

[Firnafth]

When doing multiple things on the computer like listening to music, editing photos and talking on MSN, my speed/reaction gets slowed down dramatically.

Which makes me wonder, as I have before: does multitasking result in less getting done because one is working slower? Or, does more actually get done because more than one thing is being done at once?

 

[Droopy]

I would say it slows them down because with anyone, the more work you do at once the slower you go and the more your brain has to process. Then there's also more room for errors and mistakes while trying to do multiple things at once. Possibly if the multitasking was small/easy things then it might be faster.

 

[superboyian]

I don't think I'm very good at multitasking, I get easily distracted talking to someone on MSN that I sometimes forget that I got a forum to look after.

Although weirdly enough, I can type something on the computer, listen to music and watch TV at the same time (tip just use the subtitles, works for me), although I end up mixing up my sentences and it would be a pain to go back and change it again.

 

[Sofi]

It depends on the tasks, generally I cannot. When I am eating my cereal, I need to read something (like the cereal box or a newspaper) but when I am doing something involved in my obsessions like playing a video game or researching something on the internet, I can't do anything else I turn deaf!

 

[142857]

I find multitasking pretty much impossible. The best thing to do is not to multitask at all - concentrate on one task until it is finished or until you have completed a certain chunk of the task. If you are interrupted by something important while you are in the middle of the task then devote your full attention to whatever interrupted you, for as long as is necessary, then try to remember to go back to what you were working on to begin with.

Trying to mutitask, for me at least, usually results in virtually nothing getting done properly. I try to follow the above approach, with varying degrees of success.

 

[petrossa]

I multitask all the time, which is not a good thing. If i start out doing something, i'll go off on tangents solving related problems, suddenly remembering what i was supposed to be doing , do that for a while, go off on another tangent etc.
In the end all get's done but in double the time for what it would take to do the one original task.

To me it's more a question of losing track of what you're doing ....

 

[psychedelica]

I suck at multitasking.. I can do it in some cases but really I always end up doing less when I multitask D:

 

[landlubber]

I'm so bad that I can't read the marquee at the bottom of the news and hear what they are saying.

 

[Geordie]

I can't multitask. I can only do things once at a time.

 

[Kodak]

Multi-tasking is pretty much a complicated process, which I am terrible at doing.
I think one of the problems is, is that there is too much to take in, to much thought process and so often times, I completely and utterly either shut down or I focus completely on one thing.
I can not switch between things, it's confusing and I can imagine that they would lead to hefty mistakes in comparison to just focusing on one task till completion.

 

[The Penguin]

Oddly I excel very well in multitasking.

 

[Puppywings49]

It depends on the scenario for me. When I'm completely relaxed, I can read a book and listen to a conversation while giving both enough attention for me to absorb both sets of words. But that's very rare; most times, I can't even look at a painting and participate in active conversation. I can never pay attention to both words and subtitles, and if there's two conversations going on I die.

 

[SplendidSnail]

Definitely very bad at multitasking.

If I'm doing something and someone starts talking to me, I tend to unintentionally stop what I was doing where others would continue to do it. I often have to turn off music in order to focus on something.

And if I try to speak French to a passenger while driving, I do very dangerous things. So I don't speak french while driving.

 

[Ezra]

I can't multitask.

 

[Mattymatt]

I was watching the videos of Temple Grandin in the thread devoted to her. She mentioned inability to multitask as a common trait of autistics.

I am bad at multitasking, and often am amazed at the multitasking other people attempt to do (watching TV and doing homework, doing 3 things on the computer at once, listening to music and talking at the same time, listening to music and reading at the same time).

I can listen to music and drive or do art at the same time, but I prefer not to because these activities each deserve my complete attention. I will listen to music and do housework at the same time. In most other cases, I can only do one thing at once - so if more than one thing is going on, I'm only paying attention to one of those things.

Do you have trouble multitasking?
Can people actually focus on more than one thing at once?
Or can they just switch between things very quickly? (I can't)

I don't multitask very well at all, and to tell you the truth, nobody really does. Evolution has built our minds to focus on one task at a time. When we have to multitask, the quality of our work ends up suffering. This is true for both the neurodiverse and the neurotypical. Computers, like our brains, only "emulate" the ability to multitask. In reality, they perform work in time slices, halting certain tasks to perform others with higher priorities. Computers do it much better because their short term memory is vastly more reliable than our own. I've read some interesting pieces on how the expectation of humans to multitask is actually deleterious to the brain and can cause issues with stress and anxiety to develop. Multitasking might actually be forcing our minds into overdrive, bordering on fight or flight. We're not meant to live this way. When we need to multitask, evolution designed this for the, "Oh my God I am going to die!" situation.

 

[SplendidSnail]

I don't multitask very well at all, and to tell you the truth, nobody really does. Evolution has built our minds to focus on one task at a time. When we have to multitask, the quality of our work ends up suffering. This is true for both the neurodiverse and the neurotypical. Computers, like our brains, only "emulate" the ability to multitask.

The difference is, NTs are generally much better a switching between tasks quickly. For us, we struggle with switching between tasks.

I can recall quite a few times when I've been focused on something and someone interrupts me, and it almost feels like I have to physically push a mental wall aside in order to get into the mental set for what they want me to focus on. And then, once I finally do manage to focus on what they wanted me to focus on, it's going to be really hard to regain my focus afterwards.

 

[interaural]

I can recall quite a few times when I've been focused on something and someone interrupts me, and it almost feels like I have to physically push a mental wall aside in order to get into the mental set for what they want me to focus on. And then, once I finally do manage to focus on what they wanted me to focus on, it's going to be really hard to regain my focus afterwards.

Nice description. At least, this is also what task-switching feels like to me. If the interruption is verbal, I often feel that I'm struggling to catch up, not properly processing the first couple of sentences, and then perhaps trying to guess them from context. And if the task I'm being interrupted from is writing code (something I enjoy, but don't get to do very often) then it seems worse. The only times I've really felt non-verbal are when I've been dragged out from deep inside some algorithm. Trying to respond to a spoken question at that point can be impossible.

 

[Judge]

I multitask frequently. However whatever multiple functions I may be doing, cannot involve any real-time conversations with other people. Otherwise it all goes to hell in a handbasket.