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3 Signs Your Brain May Not Be Up To Multi-tasking as Well as It Used To Be

Photo by Jesse Martini on Unsplash

This article is designed to be humorous, discussing how we overload our brains with multi-tasking. I am not poking fun at anyone (other than myself), and especially am not downplaying the several conditions that can impact negatively on brain function. They are serious and need and deserve more funding, attention, and research— much more.

So, 3 signs you may have too many things on your mind at the same time:

№1 Fresh from the grocery store, while unpacking the bags and talking on the phone, and unraveling your legs from two dogs, you put the frozen Red Baron French Bread pizza in the fridge; and you put the eggs in the freezer.

Later, looking for the eggs (needed for a recipe), you conclude that you either forgot to buy them or left them in the car. They’re not in the car. Being unable to recall where you put the receipt, so you can confirm you bought the eggs, you go back to the store and buy another dozen eggs, having no confidence that you bought them the first time.

It never occurs to you to check the freezer, because what knucklehead would put eggs in the freezer? And looking specifically for eggs as part of a recipe, who would see the pizza box — which, if seen, might be a clue to the whereabouts of the eggs?

№2 While on the phone(as usual), you walk upstairs to retrieve something that you need in order to be able to do something downstairs — something that the phone call reminded you as needed. It’s time for the dogs to see you making their dinner (the signs are clear), so you start on that while on the phone — and then try to remember why you came upstairs.

Dog bowls filled, and now off the phone, having forgotten all about what you were trying to remember to look for, you go back downstairs— and spy the needed item you went upstairs to retrieve.

№3Despite considerable education and training in safety, you forget that a hand-rail is probably called that for a reason. But, having been unable to recall where you put the small step-ladder used indoors to get to high spots, and (sigh, while on the phone), you stand on the hand-rail to look for the item you (by phone) are being guided to by the person with possible knowledge of the location.

Gravity being what it is, and a hand-rail not being a sufficient replacement for a small step-ladder, the rail underfoot breaks free from the wall; and a number of items come down on the part of your crumpled body that really should be more than a hat rack. Among these things is the item you were being guided to — which you gather together with the other items — and which you carefully set aside to be replaced when you eventually locate the small ladder.

So those are 3 signs — and yes, they’re all me. I do recognize the common factor of the phone, but it’s not really my fault. The vast majority of my business calls come from other time zones, and those nice folks call when it’s best for them.

It is uncanny, but their best times seem almost always to align with me being engaged in driving, cooking, looking for something, or at the store getting groceries — you know, the kind of activities which are best (and most safely) achieved by paying attention to what you’re doing.

A while ago, deciding that hands-free was the way to go since I’m on the phone so much during the day, I bought a good Bluetooth headset. It works fine. Perhaps too well, as it seems that having my hands free (the whole point being to help in multi-tasking) has been counter-productive? There’s got to be some sort of “law” about this specific phenomenon; or if not maybe there should be. Ippolito’s Law? The Guardian Principle?

Humor
Brain
Multitasking
Aging
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