Do we have trouble Multi tasking?

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Today has been a busy Christmas Eve cooking for a dinner event at my sister's house. I go to do X thing and get told do Y,Z, etc. and get lost on what that "X" thing I was going to do in the first place. It's aggravating and makes my head spin. I was wondering if others do this. Thank You and Merry Christmas!! !!

I sure do. I mean I can manage a few different things while cooking but if someone comes and distracts me I'll do something stupid.

Like if I'm cracking Eggs into a bowl and putting the shell into a compost container I'll crack the egg into the compost bin and get totally mixed up because someone is conversing with me.

Yeah, sometimes I will drop something when dealing with another object or if I'm holding a glass and then use my other hand to move something, the glass occasionally ends up at an angle where it spills. I also can't chew food while playing guitar, haha. If, for whatever reason, I take a bite of something and quickly pick up the guitar, I forget I even have food in my mouth until I'm done playing. That sounds pretty ridiculous, but oh well.

I am like this all the time. I feel I have accomplished something if I manage to get more than one thing done in one day

Yes! I hate being told to do a second thing when I am busy doing the first thing. This happens all the time in at work. Why can't they let me finish one thing before I have to start another?! Best thing I have found is to just write that second thing on a todo list and then go back to doing the first thing.

Good idea! I do carry my iphone around with me and make shopping lists. Perhaps make a multi task list of what needs to get done. Thanks! Glad I'm not the only one with this issue. I told my mom and she said it's called multi tasking. "I knew what it was" Glad it's not just me with the issue. I learned in Psychology women multi task better but I said I don't know how the professor said it comes with age. Didn't know of Asperger's at the time though for myself. Thanks.

yes, I'm like this.....I can't multitask.......

I have trouble multi-tasking most of the time. However, if I have a few different types of tasks to do, and some require waiting, or a need for breaks, I find that combining different types of tasks can work for me - provided there's no pressure or stress involved in them. I find that doing a craft task - where I know what I need to do rather than needing to invent as I go along - and doing some housework can work together for me. I do a little cleaning or laundry, work on the craft for a while, do a little more cleaning. This is good for me, as it breaks up the cleaning tasks enough that I don't wear myself out, and the craft task gets done in small increments too. The craft gives me a nice break from the cleaning, and the cleaning gives me a nice break from the more sedentary craft. The activities complement each other.

But that's a rare example, and it allows me to still focus on just one thing at a time. If I have too much pressure to complete things, or too many things on my mind at once, it doesn't work as well for me.

I think a carefully pre-planned and scheduled multi-task works. But if interrupted by another person or unexpected event it can quickly lead to confusion or mistakes.

I don't multitask... I can single-task several different things in quick succession, but I have to drop one thing in order to pick up something else, my attention changes over entirely to the new task, and I may or may not ever get back to the original task again.

Multitasking is difficult when you want to be efficient.

Yea, I think smart phones are great for writing lists and organizing them. Unfortunately I don't have a smart phone ( yet ) and my handwriting is so ugly that everything I write on the fly is useless when I am done with whatever I was doing... =P

I always take these saying that says that something is easier for one group with a grain of salt. It might be true in a statistical sense, but there are always exceptions. Often the exception is Asperger's, we are quite exeptional =D

I'm also very terrible at multitasking.

This sounds like me, too.

Making lists does help, as long as I leave them in a prominent place so I HAVE to see them right in front of me all the time, which continuously reminds me to get back to whatever I stopped doing before...eventually.

One of my professors said that multi-tasking is actually inefficient, because it spreads one's attention too thinly.

I can multi-task up to about three things (unless one of them involves a conversation - then everything seizes up) but only if I am familiar with all of the tasks I am performing.

When I was being diagnosed as having autism, trouble with multi-tasking was noted.