Multitasking

I've FINALLY figured out when and why I'm good at multitasking, and where I suck at it

I’ve always had an ambivalent relationship with multitasking. Sometimes I think I’m great at it. Other times I think I absolutely suck at it. For a long time I’ve thought it’s correlated with my general mental state - when I’m in “ground state” I’m good at multitasking, but when I’m mentally disturbed (being depressed, for example), I’m not.

However, I always knew that this wasn’t the full explanation, and one little incident this morning gave me a much cleaner cut (maybe I can call it a “machine learning model”?) on when I’m good at multitasking.

I’m good at multitasking as long as I have full control of all the said tasks.

I remember that long ago I’d take immense pride in writing code while reading on the side. I’d write blogposts while watching cricket or football on TV. Doing two or more simultaneous projects at work. These were things I’d do effortlessly, and would never get stressed out while multitasking.

However, there were other kinds of multitasking that would occasionally stress me out. Chatting with someone while programming or writing, for example (my daughter is now seven, and has learnt enough to know that if I say I’m “blogging” I ought not to be disturbed). Or even chatting with two people simultaneously on two parallel windows can stress me out at times.

Notice the difference in the two sets - when I’m writing or coding or reading or watching TV, they are all tasks that I’m fully in control of, without anyone else having the ability to “disturb” me. When I’m chatting or doing work that involves coordination with others, I don’t have this control any more.

This morning, I was helping my wife book an auto to take her (and four bags, and two children) to her parents’ place. A driver on Namma Yatri accepted and cancelled. It happened once again. Then I decided to hedge by booking an auto on Uber as well, and there began my troubles.

Suddenly I was running two processes, neither of which I could control (since there was a *response* pending on both sides). Suddenly I had to make decisions “live”. Should I cancel Uber? Should I cancel Namma Yatri? Suddenly one of the drivers called me, and I had to direct him while trying to cancel the other app. Thankfully it was brief, for two or three minutes later the Namma Yatri driver had arrived while I’d cancelled the Uber.

I sent off my family and came upstairs, but it took another ten minutes for me to cool down from what had been fairly “routine multitasking”. The only issue was that things weren’t in my control, and I found it difficult to manage!

I wrote this post now while having put an order on Swiggy Instamart. Now, while that order broke my flow (the doorbell range two paragraphs ago), it was only one piece of interruption from the uncontrollable part. And so I’m managing.