One often hears on the media how women are able to multitask but men can’t. Fact or fable? For my penny’s worth my wife is oh so incapable of multitasking (MT)…but that’s not bad as she is very focused when she does something. It sounds as if MT is another term for disorganised, haphazard or plain ‘deurmekaar’. Me? On Sunday I distilled 10 l of wine (witblits) while cooking a cassoulet for 80 people, washed the pig and delivered 200 baby ducklings…so maybe we’re the exception that proves the rule! Views?
Impressive! I have difficulty focusing on even one whole thing at time, I get distracted by all the different parts.
Washed the pig? LOL That just strikes me as funny. Does the pig enjoy it?
Absolutely and he gets goosebumps all over his body! Hilarious!
At work I was once delegated to assist in job grading. One of the criteria to determine the seniority of a position was how complex a variety of responsibilities needs to be kept track of simultaneously. If you “distilled 10 l of wine (witblits) while cooking a cassoulet for 80 people, washed the pig and delivered 200 baby ducklings”, I am pleased to tell you that you are in a senior managerial position and qualify for a big salary and a bakkie! ;D
I just knew I’d make the big time one day! 
May I just suggest one small thing: Next time try hatching the baby ducklings rather than delivering them.
my top point of multitasking was skype-ing with one hand, scratching one cat behind the ear, and playing with another with my foot. i think i passed out after that.
my mum could read a book, watch the soaps, crochet something, have dinner going, and breathe, at the same time!!!
i dont think multitasking abilities are gender specific, either you can, or you cant. and it might even be a skill you can learn.
i think younger generation are better at at, since you have like 6 windows open on your desktop at any time. doing a proposal, skype, solitaire, outlook, defrag, that porno site…
I have a friend (male) who is an air traffic controller - and those people are scary! I have personally seen him talk on one phone, while listening to another, while typing a different message on skype. I was talking with another friend of mine, and as soon as he put the phone he was talking into down, he commented on the conversation I was having - so he was following that too!
Multitasking is DEFINITELY not gender-specific, but you have to be a special kind of special to get certain things right…
I admire people who can do this. If I so much as hear something as innocuous as a TV bleating in the background I can forget about doing anything else properly. I can’t even worry and work at the same time.
Mintaka
The way I understand it is that the ducklings had already hatched and had to be delivered to a customer. Hatching them would require several weeks and a huge bum, but delivering them would require that new corporate bakkie and a paying customer.
You’re spot on Stevo. I hatch them (500 at a time/week) and then deliver them to my wife (The Duck Lady) who feeds them for 49 days and then it’s to the market!
I’m guessing the duckies end up on the menu at dinner then?
shame.
don’t stress GCG, the ducks are all vegetarians ;D (free range as well!)
There was a piece on TV a couple weeks back related to this.
Here, it is not illeagal to be on the cell while driving. Many people say it’s just “multitasking”, but a specialist (forgot his actual title) said, basically, ummm no.
This would still be relavent in ZA since he said the conversation (not holding the phone), and using those parts of the brain required for driving can’t happen simultaneously.
I would have to find the piece for more detail, it was a while back, but this was the gist. Having driven for years in several metro areas (including Jo’burg), I already knew this.
Now, I am sure there is some tiny fraction of people who can do both satisfactorily. The problem is that MOST people think they fall into that category, claim to be good at multitasking.
Sorry for going a bit OT, just had to throw that in there.
I wonder if driving while smoking weed could be considered multitasking.
no only if you smoke weed, sniff coke while driving and for hero status, have a can of beer!
No that doesn’t count, using a stimulant is cheating. 
I don’t see why talking on a hands free phone would be any different to talking to a passenger in the car.
unless you have a very fancy phone, you would still have to take your eyes off the road for a second, to look at your phone and press the right button to answer or end the call. A split second at the wrong moment is all it takes…
i think smoking the magic cabbage and doing anything expect have a vacant stare is multitasking.
i have an extreme pet-hate in people who fiddle on their fones while driving.
case and point. was going down to PE last weekend. The driver was on his IPhone half the time. The roads between bloem and PE are littered with potholes, roadkill and big ass trucks. and yet, it googles, and mails, and IM’s. And then he has this habit to drift then pluck the car back into straight. My fokken hart. At least he didnt smoke.
i asked my bf to address this issue with the oke. which he didnt, eventhough he agreed that it wasnt cool.
if you are only going to kill yourself, then by all means, write an essay on your fone.
but you are not going to kill just yourself. you are going to blixem into me. and then i will be dead, or mangled, and in a wheelchair, or at best, sitting with a fucked car.
i actually made a little poster for my back window last week.
it says pretty much in the vein of ‘is my life more important than that fonecall?’
maybe it will make some asshole put down his fone, and not drive into someone.