Multitasking
Intent on cooking a sumptuous meal for my family,
I channeled my inner Giada De Laurentiis,
and began washing, chopping and seasoning.
A pot of nutty quinoa simmering on the stove.
Brilliant green asparagus roasting in the oven.
Wild salmon capturing parallell grill marks.
I was feeling very accomplished.
Even proud of myself.
Yeah—that’s just how I roll.
Because they often cook a multi-course meal on the cooking shows,
I decided to bake a cake to cap off the meal.
I chose a cinnamon coffee cake recipe that my family loves.
I measured and mixed,
The phone rang.
I beat, chopped and folded.
One of my kids asked a homework question.
I poured that fluffy batter into a pan and placed it in the oven.
The medley of smells wafting through my kitchen was delightful and beckoning.
This is the stuff of food porn.
I began to tend to the various dishes, as each one simmered ready to be plated.
I had set the timer for 45 minutes for the cake.
Mindlessly, I then reset the timer for the quinoa.
Crap—I wiped out the remaining time for the cake.
My brain had no idea if there were 12 or 30 minutes left.
I continually checked the cake, but it was completely wet in the middle.
While I was weighing whether to remove the cake from the oven, cross my fingers and hope for the best or leave it in just a little bit longer,
I noticed that I “baked” my cake on broil—
having forgotten to turn it down after I roasted my asparagus.
I attempted to do too many things at once.
Most of us feel confident in multi-tasking, even masterful.
Research demonstrates that being good at multi-tasking is a myth of epic proportions.
Our brains can only process one thing at a time.
Although we believe that we are being more productive,
we are, in fact, pretty good at quickly switching from one task to another,
which we might perceive as multitasking.
In actuality, we are misperceiving the positive feelings that we get from multi-tasking.
We feel more emotionally satisfied,
but end up performing each task less proficiently.
If you would like to avoid broiling your cake, here are a few tips:
—Realize and acknowledge that you can not multitask with good results.
—Make a “must do” do list to prioritize what is truly necessary at any given time.
—Be present and focus on one task at a time.
—Chunk each task down into manageable steps.
—Ask others to help out.
Incidentally, my family told me they loved the cake, particularly the gooey middle.
Go figure.
What would Giada say?
