« Multi Tasking, Lifehacking, Outsourcing: Words Not To Live By »
Friday, October 23, 2009 at 7:37AM ;)
"Can you hear me?" I say as I move around the kitchen, cell phone in ear, looking to find that magical spot where reception remains clear for more than a nano second.
I hear a garbled something from my friend on the other line and decide to hang up and call her back on my land line. A two minute telephone tag ensues while we both attempt to reestablish a connection, voice mails clicking on to both our consternations.
This is the saga of life with my iPhone, a device so ingenious that its use as a phone has become secondary to all of its other applications. I can text, e-mail, photograph and surf the web, not to mention download thousands of momentarily intriguing but mostly useless "apps." It gets terrible reception in general and even when it does seem to have all its little bars at full height, it will randomly and with no apparent reason drop my calls. Much like dealing with a brooding, moody teenager, I never know what to expect.
The iPhone has become the poster child for multi tasking. A gadget that is supposed to make one's life easier and more streamlined, it tends not to do any of its jobs all that well. Depending on the reception or alignment of the stars, voice messages and e-mails float about in the ether sometimes getting lost for hours at a time. When they do mysteriously appear, their timing has made them often times obsolete.
The doorbell rings while I just manage to reconnect with my friend on the more reliable house phone. I answer the door, continuing my conversation with her all the while shushing the dogs as they go ballistic at the sight of a stranger in our midst. I attempt to usher the furnace repair man downstairs apologizing to the person on the other end of the line for the interruption and engage in my best rendition of Cesar Millan in front of the ever boisterous canines. Not surprisingly, everyone seems confused.
Like my iPhone, I am not all that great at multi tasking. I like to think I am but the reality of it is we as humans were not designed to focus on and process a multitude of things at once; well, at least not successfully. More than one study has found this to be the case. I did not need to read the literature to believe it, I see it everyday.
But, if multi tasking is truly a myth, what are all of the pathologically time crunched and organizationally challenged to do? If just fitting in more and more does not work, I have discovered there is an entire self help movement to aid in keeping the mountains of information moving through your in box and the minutiae that makes up our lives humming along. Among other things, it is called Lifehacking. To lifehack, as opposed to being a hack at life, is to utilize the ways in which a computer handles problems and apply them to everyday life skills. Helpful hints include such things as decluttering one's kitchen with the help of a detailed flow chart and color coding. Not making it out of the house on time? No problem. From the site, Stepcase Lifehack, a step by step how to on getting out of bed, showering, eating breakfast and making it out the door in five minutes flat, "without sacrificing any cleanliness." If you need to get all of that accomplished in five minutes, cleanliness is the least of your problems.
If helpful hints are not enough, there is always the option of outsourcing (by far my favorite of all the solutions to not getting things done.) Tim Ferris of The 4 Hour Work Week, extols the virtues of outsourcing everything from planning a vacation to managing his dates on Match.com. There is nothing quite so reassuring as knowing a legion of workers sitting in cubicles in Bangalore are coordinating every aspect of one's personal life.
Call me crazy, but perhaps, the solution might be that we all need to try to pack a little less in to our lives. The idea that we can continually do more and more if we just buy the newest gadgets or utilize the right management skills is a fallacy. We may be able to get more done but at what cost? Relationships are reduced to pixels on a screen; life becomes merely a series of tasks to accomplish as quickly as possible. Everything is reduced and nothing is meaningful.
After all this, will I get rid of my iPhone and stop trying to multi task? Probably not. No one is perfect. Outsourcing the blog to India? I draw the line there.
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Reader Comments (18)
BRAVA, Jen!
This post is not only written with great humor, but wrapped in a tremendous amount of TRUTH.
"perhaps, the solution might be that we all need to try to pack a little less in to our lives."
"life becomes merely a series of tasks to accomplish as quickly as possible."
You said it, my friend!
I always have to remind myself that "less is more."
Besides, I really suck at multi-tasking.
Great post!
Amen sista! Our lives have become insane. I just spent two weeks in virtual wilderness--no phone and 2 minutes a day of internet and it was so friggin' freeing! I panicked for the first two days and then I just didn't want to ever leave. Now back to L.A. and my insomnia's back, my stress is back and I can't seem to relax!
Ron - Thanks for the affirmation. I do think we try to pack too much in and life starts to get away from us.
Hip Hop - I'm not sure if it would have taken me longer than two days to stop worrying about being disconnected. We probably all should try to get away for a week without phones or e-mails. I think I would still need my tv.
Hi Jen!
This is an amazing post and I think you're right about us trying to cram too much into our lives. Every day, I try to think of ways to simplify.
I don't have a cell phone, but I did at one time. It has been years since I had one and yet I still feel the amazing sense of freedom that comes from not having one.
Now... take away my internet... I'm a big sissy and don't quite know what to do with myself! ;)
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Penny
Ah yes, the love-hate relationship continues to expand throughout our lives, as opposed to shrinking. I must say I adore my iPhone and can almost operate it as I am supposed to most of the time, and I have even graduated to buying 3 (I'm wild this way) apps at the app store, including Twitterriffic (sp?).
However... the cell reception here at the Prepatorium, regardless of vendor, is almost nonexistent. I have been seen in the back yard in the middle of a snowstorm attempting to finish a conversation with a supplier. Now that we're on the internal wireless network it's better for almost everything except calls, which is actually okay.
And the Stepcase Lifehack... hee-hee-hee. I am subscribed. Many days I delete it upon sight without opening it, somedays it is forwarded content unread & unscanned to a sibling who will clearly benefit so much more than I from its wisdom, and some days I do read it.
On a more positive note however, I am done looking at "Productivity Tools," or "Productivity Apps" or "Productivity Suites." No mas.
GREAT post, grins and giggles at you for the weekend!
tp
Ha! Just found your blog - it makes me laugh. Think I'll follow you if that's ok!!
P.S. Forgot to fill in my URL - stop by my blog if you have a moment!
My Iphone and I have such a love/hate relationship that I've become dependent on. Sad.
I've just upgraded to my very first Blackberry....not for the apps, btw, but to finally have all my eggs in ONE basket, so to speak....we'll have to see how well this all works out.
My bro insists that it's easier than having the computer, the dayrunner, 4 different email accounts and 2 landlines going at the same time. He's a tech-guy, so I don't know whether to believe him or not. It SOUNDS good...in theory.
BUT. That means my entire life...all my contacts....everything....needs to be backed up daily or it may be lost, or worse...stolen!
ACK! What have I DONE???
Penny - I give you credit not having a cell phone at all. It seems like such a must these days. I am quite attached to my computer as well. Thanks for stopping by!
Preppy - Always love it when you stop by! I have done that dance with my iPhone as well. Not fun looking for reception in the middle of a snowstorm. Some of these "lifehacking" sites do have some good ideas but all in moderation. You can start spending so much time on organizing that you don't actually get anything done.
Kate - So appreciate you popping by for the first time. Do come back.
Kristin - I almost just wrote a whole piece on the love/hate relationship with iPhone. It brings out both reactions on a daily basis.
Kathryn - Have fun with the Blackberry or should I say "crackberry." You will be tied to that thing in ways you never imagined.
Good morning! Happy SITS Saturday! I love this post. I don't have an iPhone because I'm more married to my service (Verizon) than my gadgets, but it is interesting to know that iPhone users everywhere are extolling only the virtues, and not so much the dropped calls. Oh well, the day they make them available to other carriers I will most likely buy one, which will be about the time I've got the money to buy a new Mac, and I'll finally have fully succumbed. :)
I have a horrible problem with trying to multi task. That just happens with children. Sometimes I wish I had two heads and eight arms. But then I still wouldn't get everything done.
I am sorry that your iPhone doesn't do it's job the way that it should, but thanks for the heads up. I don't think that one will be on my purchase for Christmas list now!
If you'd like to stop by my blog I'm at Cake Crumbs.
Hey Jen,
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I love this post! Hope you don't mind if I come back when I can read your past ones. You talked about being in a funk, and I had a suggestion for you. But after reading this post, I'm just a techno-challenged newbie and really don't have much to offer. I have gone to http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/ when I'm stumped. You may already know about this site.
Thanks again. I'll be back soon!
Janet, Heidi and No Excuses - Thanks all for stopping by my site for the first time. I really appreciate it. The iPhone is a wonderful device but it's not perfect. Although, not much is. You take the good with the bad.
I love my iphone, but then it doesn't drop out on me. My previous phone dropped out all the time when I was at home, but that was because it was with orange and they have particularly bad service in my area.
But I do suck at multitasking anyway. I can't even blame my suckage on technology!
The idea of needing a step by step guide to fast morning routines is kind of sad.
I can't buy an iPhone because there's a 95.6% chance I'll put it in my back pocket while drunk and then go to pee and allow it to drop into gross bar toilet water.
First time reading you blog, loved it! I can totally relate to the whole multi-tasking thing...it has succeeded in only making me scatter brained!
I still carry a basic candy bar phone--no color screen, no camera, no mp3s...it's so dull, but so easy!