Whenever I hear someone blurt out the phrase “I’m multi-tasking!” I instantly lose respect for them.
It’s proof their attention’s spread too thin to handle all they’re taking on. That they’re over-booked and over-stimulated, which means they’re over-confident and under-delivering. Which… sucks.
The sad truth is that most people aren’t all that attentive or detail-oriented. If someone doesn’t give something their full attention, it’s just about given they’ll miss key things. And they’ll miss more with each splitting of their focus (even when they insist otherwise). It doesn’t take many splits (often just one) before quality suffers and things stop working well… or at all.
“Multi-tasking” is euphemism-ese – a shiny way of saying they’re doing a lot of things less-well than they should be done. It’s a sacrifice of quality for quantity.
And even with the very few people who can multi-task well, it’s like them burning a candle at two (or more) ends – they can only do it in bursts before they fuck up, break down or burn out.
Right now this happening on-scale. Perpetual distraction means the moment we’re actually living gets only fragments of our focus. Attention shapes reality – and not focusing on the moment creates a shitty reality.
Someone “multi-tasking” while you’re waiting on them, after they’ve agreed to be in your presence, is wrong. They want to hang out… but not enough to pay attention to you? No. It’s disrespect and a breach of human decency that shouldn’t be tolerated. Next ‘em and instead invest in people who show they value your company – not ones who hold it hostage.
Having lots of things going on is fine… but doing them while others are waiting on you is not. At all. It’s a vicious passive-aggression that embodies ego, entitlement and greed. It’s bad humanity.
Sure, some allowances should be made – there are times in life when multi-tasking’s unavoidably necessary (especially with legit emergencies). You don’t want to chuck a long-standing partnership out the window if someone occasionally needs a minute to finish up a conversation.
…But this should be the rare exception, not the rule. Multi-tasking’s born of bad – of bad luck, bad planning, cheapness, desperation, uncalibrated ambition, over-excitement, the list goes on. It increases stress while decreasing quality. It’s never desirable – you do it when there’s no other choice.
Dedicated focus and clear, full communication are keys to bettering things. If you commit yourself to something, give it all of you. The world will be better for it.
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