Community Chat

[pattypeep]

@hckynut  Good answer, John. LOL   Love You.

[cherry]

I multi task better ,but my husband had a job that required accuracy, within a  100,000 of an inch.  So for accuracy ,he would win hands down every time, and I am tremendously proud and thankful for him, and I don't think it's a competition, we are just wired differently

[Moonchilde]

I think it depends on the individual personality/wiring. Males who supervise, or who do things like dispatch or air traffic controllers, certainly multi-task well.

I think there's a difference between just doing multiple tasks in a day, and doing multiple things at the same time.

When working, I much preferred to do one thing at a time, and do it well and thoroughly - that was my happy place comfort zone. I could multi-task, and HAD to, but I used to say I could do three things decently, and occasionally four things for short bursts, but beyond that it was just overload, and I got cranky at than trying to remember more than three things at once for hours at a time.

[Bri21]

I can multi task and hopefully do it well.

whenever my husband has many things to do, he gets them all done efficiently.   

It kind of all works out even, I guess.   I sometimes feel overwhelmed and scattered, and he doesn't.   I wonder why?  Lol

[dooBdoo]

          I don't believd it's gender-specific.   For the most part, my understanding is that this is specific to the person without regard to gender.    It's more about how each person's brain works, and it doesn't mean one is better than the other.   Also, it's interesting to read about multitasking, which actually -- for the brain -- is task switching.    Productivity and quality can often suffer when we do many things at once...  but, of course, we don't always have an option.

          One has to wonder...  do we have a preconceived notion that women should be able to "multitask" more than men, so we grow up with that expectation and as a result might see gender differences for that reason?

[StraytoStay]

I saw a study on TV years ago that filmed different women and men given several office tasks to do in a set time. Each time the women would start one, such as making copies, then she'd start the next task like coffee, and so on while the men waited on the first task, or fumbled trying to do more.  The women all did best. I'm sure it's out there on the net somewhere.

[makena]

@hckynut I was curious as to see if you would chime in and what your opinion would be. 

[151949]

Nurses. Male or female - nurses have to be extremely organized and able to juggle everything at once while also being ready for every small or large emergency. You can count on emergencies never happening one at a time.

[dooBdoo]

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@151949 wrote:

Nurses. Male or female - nurses have to be extremely organized and able to juggle everything at once while also being ready for every small or large emergency. You can count on emergencies never happening one at a time.

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          While I agree that nurses, and ER docs and staff, and other medical professionals need to be able to rapidly and efficiently task-switch, I disagree that it's more prevalent in one profession or field than in another.

[Moonchilde]

I had a friend who said she believed she had adult ADHD who always claimed to be a brilliant multi-tasker (I never saw her at work).

I don't know about that, because in our office we (briefly) had an employee with full blown, medication-prescribed adult ADHD, who literally couldn't concentrate on *anything* for more than 7-1/2 minutes tops (more than 5 min., less than 10 min.). He not only was incapable of doing the job he was hired for because he couldn't sit down or shut up for more than 10 min., he disrupted everyone else so they couldn't work either. He wasn't there long. Multi-task? Not in a million years.