Multitasking

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I multitask a lot; however I am terrible at it. It decreases my ability to focus and think and it makes me very tired, however, I still do it for some reason. It's like rape, you're going to get in trouble for it and it has no long term plusses but people still do it anyway.

I think it is amusing when someone claims that they are good at multitasking, and then you watch them do it, and you ask them a question, and they take 10-15 seconds before they answer you (or you ask twice), and they have no idea how delayed their answer was. No human is good at multitasking, except for unconscious actions such as breathing, or non-thinking actions such as walking.

silly analogy multi taking and rape, you need to watch your words here as other non aspies can be offended by this..anyway it is clear drom your post that you cant multi task i cant either and the ability to multitask gets worse as we get older.
aspoies can do 1 thing well...just one not two just one

I try to multitask too, never mind the fact that I can't!

heres a tip if your aspie and you multitask you will av emore meltdowns...aspies cant multi task.
i challenge anyone to suggest otherwise...not an ego thing, it is just a core aspie thing.
i may be wrong.?

any thoughts?

...have more meltdowns? Yep...I think there's something to that...it's the stress of trying to stay focused I think...noticed I have very little patience after awhile when I'm forced to try to multi-task...

blue jay, i melty down when i read the postings and look at your ugly cat with the ears, thats too distracting fo rme....sheeez what an ugly cat.

we cant hear more than 1 thing at a time , we over sensitive to smells and an touch...we get overwhelemed when more than 1 thing happens...the pepsi challenge is still there, iw ant some one to tell me aspies can muti task and explain how........i dont think we can but i know someone will bite?

kill that cat picture please.

I don't even know what true multitasking even is. As far as I know, humans are not designed to do more than one thing at one time. My view of multitasking is to do juggle tasks, if you know what I mean. If that's true, I can like multitask to some degree.

Like, I tend to watch TV shows. In between commercials, I'll go to the computer and do something I was doing on there to begin with. After a few minutes, when the show comes back in, I go back and watch TV again. That is my view on multitasking.

The thing is ... I don't think that fits the definition. I'm not doing two things at once, other than juggling a few tasks at once. Like, who is going to watch TV and use the computer at the same time? Doesn't make too much sense to me.

I think multitasking is something that psychologists may have invented to stipulate how abnormal we are. I know that some jobs say one needs to be able to multitask, but that's not exactly true. They mean juggling two or three different assignments and meeting deadlines. Still, that's not really multitasking. Some of us may find this sort of thing overwhelming, but it can be accomplished if we schedule things appropriately. ASome of us might need to learn how to schedule things so we can function better, whereas some NTs may find it naturally. Hell, computer systems that talk about how they multitask, say some operating systems, use scheduling algorithms. And a computer isn't even capable of doing two things at once. A computer can't multitask. Neither can humans.

- Ray M -

Oh ... also ... There are some entrepreneurial aspie types. Some say Bill Gates may be aspie. Since these sorts of jobs are the most complicated, and aspies can't multitask, then something is seriously wrong here.

- Ray M -

The idea of Multi-tasking is really a Job/Work related concept and this is where I tend to blow my stack.

Working in a kitchen, with unpredictable numbers of orders coming in, trying to manage and organise the entirely unpredictable is unreasonable. The problem is that chaotic environments (which commercial kitchens tend to be), are by their very definition unordered. It all really comes down to trying to work people so hard and fast-paced that just about anyone will blow their stack and I know I did it on numerous occasions, as did many others.

Similar situations apply in any work situation where you are expected not only to work flat out for a minimum wage, but you are constantly getting scolded and hectored to do even more.

This applies equally in an office environment, in which that bane of human existence - the telephone - will keep on ringing, so that you cannot ever do any real, important work.

Cosy euphemisms such as 'hectic' or 'fast-paced' basically means having to expend 3 times the amount of labour power for half a decent living wage. It is how ineffective, top-heavy companies turn a hefty profit with which to reward the bullymanagers.

no chance

adversarial. i think working oin a kitchen as a chef is the most aspie unfriendly job to do ever.
the business and unpreictably lack of structure and ego's in a place with autsitic people and knives?
sheez i would have a melt down ages ago...and a ringing phone.....isnt it just the worst thing............i have 3 phones and dont knwo any of my numbers...and you see tele sales men?
when i meet some out, i make a point to scrsath their catr or spit in their drink or something to them.
i hayte a ringing pohone.....a phone is for my benefit and not any one elses.

I don't know... maybe the classic: "walk and chew gum at the same time"? No problem for me.

Perhaps the old "pat your head and rub your belly at the same time" bit? No problem.

Play three different music CD's on three different players at the same time and be able to enjoy it? I can do that.



Look like I'm actually listening to gossip and try to get my job done? That, on the other hand, ain't happening. Plan and organize my time for two or more tasks I'm unfamiliar with? I'm hopeless at that.



And I agree completely - a kitchen is, in a way, the worst place for an aspie to work, with all the pressure and noise and pecking-order-politics and screaming and shouting and so on. I can speak from over 10 years experience in about 5 or 6 different kitchens on that - at least, it was usually a non-stop surreal nightmare for me. Unfortunately, it's the only job I can ever get - kitchens will hire just about anyone! I've seen grown men and women, that I'm almost completly certain are Aspies, publicly cry in that environment, and people still not let up on them. And I probably held the record on melt-downs everywhere I worked. I got fired from every kitchen job I've ever had, for "insubordination" in every case (including, I figure, the one where the boss suddenly took to repeatedly changing my schedule without warning until he fired me officially for tardiness, but privately gave me the cryptic reason of: "Now, there's only one boss around here, and that's ME, got it?" I barely talked to anyone, let alone bossed them around, so I never did actually "get it", but he seemed to think he taught me a lesson, so....)


And, about ringing phones: in High School I once got a summer job working in a government office, where I answered phones a lot. I hated that part: I always got the messages mixed up, messed up phone numbers and appointment times, got the agents names confused, and things like that. My supervisors quickly got disgusted with me. But I did get to spend some time alone doing nothing but organizing and filing reports from field agents, which I enjoyed a lot. (All I was supposed to do was count the reports and make a record of the numbers of reports sent by each agent, but I read the reports anyway - often barely literate, and in many cases there would be reports that went like "I was supposed to go to work to day, but I called in sick to have a party instead. So that's my report. Nobody ever reads these things, anyway." They were right: it was the quantity of the reports that mattered, not the quality of the content.) I think the supervisors were glad when Summer ended and they could get rid of me

I think there is a lot of truth in the limited abilities of aspies to multitask.

If I'm working and my girlfriend tries to make friendly conversation, I really have no ability to listen to what she's saying; this in turn makes me feel frustrated and she might feel I'm getting mad at her for some reason.

The only way I can listen to her is to mentally stop the work I was doing and focus all attention on her. This is also annoying since if I'm in the middle of something I want to get it done and not have to waste the mental energy and time switching back and forth.

She has learned to basically leave me alone when I'm working and everybody's happy. I work at home, but I tell her to kind of think that I go to the office all day and come back in the afternoon. Of course, I still visit her about once an hour when I take breaks and we both enjoy this.

On this same topic, this is a different point than saying an aspie cannot do many different jobs. It just means one might have to put one task away as they work on another task; which I think is not all that different from what a NT does anyway.

[If I'm working and my girlfriend tries to make friendly conversation, I really have no ability to listen to what she's saying; this in turn makes me feel frustrated and she might feel I'm getting mad at her for some reason.

The only way I can listen to her is to mentally stop the work I was doing and focus all attention on her. This is also annoying since if I'm in the middle of something I want to get it done and not have to waste the mental energy and time switching back and forth.



yes , yes , yes exactly........i can only focus on one thing and when they talk when yoru working they dont get this...but dont they see that we dont talk to anyone while they are workign cause we would never do it?

the mental ebergy thing and switiching tasks is a great thing, i hate beign forced to pay attention when im allreayd paying it elsewhere....i feel like there is a ripp off going on and i cant cope.