Do you have trouble multi-tasking

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I've always had trouble multi-tasking and whenever I have to do something that requires it, I often get overwhelmed and frustrated. Do you relate? Tell me about some of your experiences related to this.

Quite, I can only do one thing at a time and when expected to do something and move onto two tasks at once I can only do one or the other. My short term memory is pretty bad so with my executive function I lose things quite easily but have a long memory

Absolutely. A common but often unrecognized multitasking issue for autistics is bieng at a place where a lot of people are conversing. Even when conversing with one person trying to make eye contact while listening is multitasking especially the conversation is taking place in a location that triggers sensory overload such as a place with flickering flourecent lights.

Yes. I think I developed an aversion to multi-tasking, which then developed into not being able to do it. It is a learned talent. I hated to stop an activity I enjoyed to do something else -- even if it was another activity I enjoyed. I needed to get to an acceptable stopping point before I would willingly move on to something else. However, when I was a kid, the adults in my life were more forceful than understanding. I was always forced to stop right then when they said so. It created anxiety and felt that unfinished panic. This is only something that people like me can understand. Anything I felt that was unfinished made me want to blow up the world. Now, as an adult, I've fashioned my life so no one can force me to do anything until I am ready. I don't allow anyone to run my life anymore. There are time limits, but I don't take on anything that I don't know the conditions for first. As long as I know beforehand what is needed, how long I have, and what comes after that -- all is well.

I was singing the tenor part of a song and at the same time I was watching discussion boards on a smartphone. While I knew what I was singing and also know what has been discussed, an NT woman noticed me doing that.

"What are you doing? Men can't do that! Only women should be able to do that, not also men!"

Although I am autistic, I can multitask at a certain level. I generally think very fast, not in a language, but in pictures. It may help that.

And in an article I read that multitask is overrated. If you say the first 10 numbers of an array (1, 2, 3, ..., 10) it costs a certain amount of time, let's say t1. If you say the first 10 letters of the alphabet, it costs a certain amount of time, t2. Then you try to mix these tasks. You would get A 1, B 2, etc. what time does that cost you? That will be way more than t1 + t2. You have to think too much to do this correctly, and you fail that to do that in time of t1 + t2. In my case there is a slight difference. It costs me about one or two seconds more to do the third task, than to do the first task, followed by the second task.

With conversations, I try to time things. For example, with driving they tend to say, look away from the road every X seconds. which I do. I also apply this to conversations and other similar phenomenon, like conversations. E.g.: look around every 5 secs. but only at people and blink every once in a while and etc. etc. like a full-blown algorithm on how to engage that's running in the background as I process and analyze what everyone is saying. It's quite ... resource expensive though.

What? I don't understand that? Why can't men sing? What's wrong with that?

I SUUUUUUCK at multi-tasking, and generally things that cost executive functioning. My short-term memory is pretty terrible too, but at the same time I consider the idea of working in a fast-paced office sort of environment to be pretty interesting- only because I admire when people can do the sort of things I can't.

She talked about multitasking, not about singing. She noticed that I was multitasking, singing and reading. The content of the song is totally different from that of the discussion board.

okay, but where does the distinction come in? Why should only women be able to do that?

I consider ad hoc conversing to be the ultimate in multi-tasking.

Think about it. You need to listen to what someone is saying and how they are saying it (i.e. tone). You need to look at them, watching their facial expressions and body language.

You then need to put all of this together, to interpret the message (and supposedly, figure out the emotion that other individual is feeling at that moment in time). It is extra complex, because the content of what was said, the tone for how it was said and the facial expression and body language could conflict. In that case, you need to figure out what the intent of the message is.

If you are with a group of people, this effort becomes multiplicative, because others could have changes in their facial expressions and body language as they listen to what is being said.

Then, you need to put all of this together and then figure out whether and how to respond. And, when responding, somehow your tone, facial expressions and body language should have a “purpose”. All in a split second.

Nope. I cannot multi-task. I don’t even try.

According to a cognitive psychologist I know, who has studied this (amongst other things) all the hype around "multi-tasking" is unfounded in the empirical research, which indicates that only 5% of people can multitask to any significant degree on a continual basis across different kinds of activities - and so as 95% can't, which indicates that not being able to multitask is normative. I am curious as to whether multitasking is more common in the ambidextrous.

The only people I know who do force themselves to consistently multitask are mothers of infants on a needs-must basis, and as the children age and become less dependent, the mothers revert to their former norm. This was also my experience as a parent. It makes some kind of evolutionary sense, I suppose.

Depends. Eating my meals and watching TV, yes. Driving the car and attempting to carry on a conversation, absolutely not. Driving the car and answering the cell phone, hell no. Directing a choir and singing at the same time, since the tenor section never showed up for the performance, it depends on what's being performed.