Multitasking

Morgue Files Karpati Gabor

Recently a Communications Major posted this to my wall on Facebook.

Typical conversations with you go like this:
Email from SRKarfelt: What do you think of A, B, C?
Email from ComMaj: I think C.
FB from SRKarfelt: Why do you think C? What about D, E, or F?
FB from ComMaj: I think C yada yada. Email me.
Text from SRKarfelt: What about A/C or B/E?
Text from ComMaj: *jumble of autocorrect disasters and missing words while I multitask* EMAIL ME.
Email from SRKarfelt to A Different Account I Rarely Check: Why do you want me to email you?
Text from SRKarfelt: Check your email.
FB from SRKarfelt: What about XYZ?
Comm major mind is exploding.
— feeling dizzy.

For a Communications Major she obviously has a bit of trouble keeping up with the conversation, don’t you think? I am well aware this was meant to communicate that I needed to streamline my communications with her, but what did I hear? “Dang, you’re excellent at holding your train of thought across multi-media.”

Yep. That’s what I really thought. It’s a gift.

Once I had a desk job in an office – the kind where you get to talk to real people instead of your imaginary friends. At my performance review my boss praised my work, but opened his office door to point at my work area. “You need to get organized.”  “I am organized,” I said. He gave me The Look, I’m sure we’ve all experienced The Look. “I can find anything,” I told him, eyeballing the piles of paperwork mounded up on my desk, cabinets, and chairs. He named a random form and I jumped up, dug neatly through a box beside my desk, and produced it. Hah! I thought. “You need to get organized like everyone else does,” he said, “It’s not professional.”

S. R. Karfelt Madness to My Method

I get that, I really do, and I like the way organized looks. Isn’t that why most of us prefer to shop at Target over Walmart? It’s color-coded and neat. But when I’m working, really working, I need everything nearby. If it’s not, I forget it exists. This would explain why I have six copies of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, four copies of Holes by Louis Sachar, and three copies of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (none of which I can find beyond my kindle version). Well, that and because I often give those books away as gifts.

It also explains why I use multiple computers (I keep all the old crippled ones. They’re my old friends and have served me well. What? You just toss yours out? After all they’ve done for you?). If it isn’t at my fingertips, there’s a good chance it has fallen off my radar. Occasionally I’ve been complimented for my quick completion of tasks. Don’t be impressed. For me it’s now or never.

At any given time my WIPs (Work in Progress) are open, and social media is on a phone or tablet or whatever works. That is how I streamline. How else can you do it if you don’t do it all at once? I want to know. How do you do it? What is the secret to your multitasking success?