Stress management

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• May 21, 2011 11:31 a.m.

  As a teacher,I am mystified as to how students can listen to music and simultaneously read,write,study,or concentrate. Perhaps it's a gift,a talent bestowed upon a fortunate segment of our species. I've never been able to do it,though.

  - Tom

• April 28, 2011 9:51 p.m.

  Multitasking or listening to more than 1 person talking at once is for me a physical impossibility. However, there are people who can do this effectively. Businesses love this because they can pay 1 person to do the work of 2. E.g., fast-food drivethrus, have you noticed the cashier simultaneously taking an order and putting it into the register with 1 hand while giving the car outside their order, taking $, and making proper change with their other hand? This happens simultaneously, not in quick succession. Have noticed that women tend to be better at this than men. Suspect this may be due to evolution, where the men just needed to focus on the hunting quarry, but women would need to follow all their little ones going every which way to increase their chances of survival. The women who could do this would have a greater chance of passing this capability on to their little girls.

  - Paul

• April 28, 2011 8:55 a.m.

  As I see multitasking means multithinking.The brain has to cope up with sending commands to perform the tasks of differing requirements at one go .Over a period of time as you age this habit may lead to lack of concentration resulting in frustration and stress.

  - sagar

• April 27, 2011 8:54 p.m.

  Multitasking is harming both our ability to concentrate and enjoy the present moment. Why did we decide that it was more productive to do more than one thing at a time?

  - Mike

• April 27, 2011 3:14 p.m.

  Multitask = multi-mistakes According to my reading it takes 25% more time to get work done when you try to juggle multiple tasks instead of just finishing a project. In addition, the work isn't nearly as good. Most job descriptions require the "ability to multitask". I just laugh!

  - Lucretia

• April 26, 2011 10:31 a.m.

  Re Anna Marie's comment: Another good self talk is "I am a good person." Say it to yourself often and pretty soon, if you don't already, you will believe it. As for the multitasking, a psychiatrist told me once that your mind only lets out what it can handle at the time. That was 30 years ago. I think of it now as only having had to deal with one traumatic thing from my past at a time. It was sort of a preview of what our brains think of multitasking.

  - carol

• April 24, 2011 3:08 p.m.

  Until recently I did not realize how rare are the moments I actually focus on only one task. I have been suffering with conversion disorder in which my body literally quits moving when I try to do more than one thing at a time. This has been a real eye opener to all the things in life we miss out on as we are so focused on multitasking. Laying on the ground paralyzed made me aware of the many parts of every day life I have been missing out on. Some are as simple as recognizing the tone of my child's voice letting it known they can not figure o how to get their point across. Others are more about the passing o time, how the seasons change In my life I had begun to feel I was wasting time if I wasn't doing multiple things at once. Little did I realize how multitasking was robbing me of enjoyment and indeed taking more time.

  - melissa

• April 24, 2011 2:19 p.m.

  Two concepts caught my attention in this week's post related to stress. First the sentiment "you deserve it all"...just reading the phrase I feel tense and my stress level increase. One technique that helps me when confronted with this type of assertion is to substitute a similar but true statement and repeat it to myself. In this case my favorite currently is, "You deserve a good life." The stress melts away, and I'm back focused on making choices that support my vision of "a good life." Secondly the concept of multitasking. I cannot multitask either, and I find my mind can only fully focus on one task at a time. I believe there are more and more studies showing that the human mind can only focus on one thing at a time. I do have a new term I use for myself to substitute for what is sometimes called "multitasking" that I do think is possible- "layering." An example of layering is starting a load of laundry washing, then going to the computer and answering emails, 30 min later going to the laundry and moving the wet clothes to the dryer, putting in another load to wash, and going back to the computer for more email. Layering, viola! Not multitaking, I am still only doing one thing at a time, my focus is in the present with each task. Perhaps listening to music and driving a familiar road in good weather with smooth traffic is a example of multitask that I can do without increasing my stress.--can't think of an

  - Anna Marie

• April 22, 2011 2:57 a.m.

  My company leaders also instruct us to multitask to be more efficient in this recession. I pretend I do it and give it lip service, but I don't really do it because I make mistakes. Instead I bring work home and work longer hours and don't inform my employer in order to keep my job. If multitasking is really effective, why are there laws on the books preventing drivers on the road or directors of mass transit from texting or cell phone use on the job?

  - Artie

• April 21, 2011 9:13 p.m.

  The quality of my work is suffering because I have too much multitasking going on. There are so many people out of work, yet my company can't seem to afford to hire anyone to help take on the extra work, and I'm being asked to do it. It needs to be done, so I don't know how to say no to these work requests.

  - Maggie