Dear LPG,

I was having a chat with my granddaughter the other day who told me that I was so lucky that I no longer had to rush through life.  She told me how she spends so much of her time trying to do more than one task at a time just to be able to get everything she needs to do done.  She mentioned getting up in the mornings and getting the children ready for school, while getting herself ready for a day’s work, sorting their breakfast and listening to the telephone answer machine messages.  I remember being a young mum and doing similar things in the mornings and although it was not called multitasking in my day I know that I was not the only working woman who became quite adept at getting things done.

From what I learned on the internet the word originated as a computer term that explained the electronic ability to do more than one thing at a time but then became accepted as a word to describe the way that many of us manage to get things done.  But while computers work very quickly and can do a bit of one thing followed by a bit of another, before returning to continue with the next part of the first task, and toggle back to the second etc. they can’t actually do two things at a time; and from what I have read that was a more accurate way of explaining what our young brains used to do too.

However, I do believe that, even in my late 60s, my multitasking expertise lives on.  I have been known to drink a morning cuppa, watch the news and give the cat her morning stroke all at the same time!

AH, Hither Green

LPG found some information about multitasking…

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