September 9, 2021 - One decade... be present.

It’s been a decade since I got sick. I didn’t know then, that night, that my life was dramatically changed. I’ve done therapies, and they’ve...

October 7th 2015 Multitasking is really fundamental

NOTE: Please copy and paste into Google Translate to listen if needed.

When people hear the term "multitasking" they may picture a professional trying to juggle the demands of a career with family life, or they may picture something more specific; an actual moment in someone's day that requires paying attention to more than one thing at a time. Multitasking takes on a different, I think more fundamental meaning, for some people with invisible disorders.  As I've been trying to push my boundaries a bit more, I've been thinking a lot about multitasking, and what it means for me. 

Multitasking, according to Dictionary.com, means performing two or more tasks simultaneously.  The question is what people think of when they think of tasks.  What I'm referring to is when my brain is processing more than one thing at a time.  I don't mean activities, which even for me, are still autonomic, like my heart beating, or my digestive system working.  I'm talking about activities that DO actually involve multitasking, but that people tend to THINK of as one task or activity. 

I've written about playing my flute, and reading.  Both of these activities involve multitasking.  For reading, I have my reading glasses on, which means my perception of my visual world is different than without my glasses.  So that's one processing task.  Reading requires tracking - another task - as well as processing the actual info.  Playing my flute requires processing holding my body in a certain position, moving my fingers, breathing in a specific way, and maintaining my balance.  If I'm not reading sheet music, I play a bit standing, and then finish sitting down.  If I add in reading sheet music, I am still doing the physical act of playing, but also the visual task of tracking the music, and some cognitive processing of the melody.  I do not yet play sheet music standing up.  Playing standing up with my reading glasses on, reading sheet music, is a level of multitasking I'm not ready for yet.

There are plenty of everyday tasks that involve multitasking.  Cooking often involves multiple steps and therefore lots of processing.  Standing at the counter cutting something, standing over the stove, washing pots, etc.  Sitting at a table to do something (i.e. cutting vegetables) uses a variety of vision skills, as well as body movement skills, but is not quite as demanding as standing, because doing anything while standing is more demanding.  Dealing with laundry can be a multitasking activity.  Taking clothing out of the dryer and hanging it up definitely involves multiple processes because you are moving through space, doing something with your hands/arms, and using your visual skills.   

This brain processing work does not have to involve the thought process involved in processing info, but sometimes it does.  Working on my computer is a good example of that, and major multitasking; holding my hands/arms, using my fingers on the keyboard, occasionally looking at the keyboard, looking at different images in different places on my computer screen, using my mouse AND processing the info.   Adults socializing at an event is multitasking.  Like many activities, standing while dealing with eye contact, and processing info is more demanding than sitting and having a conversation.  If there is noise or movement going on elsewhere in the room, that's another element to process.

I don't want to completely shy away from doing an activity that requires multitasking, because I wouldn't improve in this key area if I did.  I wrote in my last piece about pacing, and that is a factor here.  I need to be aware on some level all the time of how demanding, how many tasks the activity I'm doing involves, and how much stamina I have. Sometimes I don't think about it, and then when I feel really tired, I reflect on what I've been doing, and realize my fatigue makes sense.  I don't want to overload my system, but this multiple processing, fundamental multitasking is really important to expose myself to, and is something I am now able to work on in various ways in both my Feldenkrais and Vision therapies.  Writing this piece, thinking through how to explain this, was in itself a cognitive processing exercise combining multiple tasks for me.

For vestibular disorders go to www.vestibular.org
For functional vision disorders go to www.covd.org



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2 Responses to October 7th 2015 Multitasking is really fundamental

  1. I agree! Doing anything at all while doing something else, no matter the task whether it involves sitting, standing, or walking, is challenging for people with vestibular disorders. It's pretty much like trying to spin a basketball on one hand while holding a conversation with someone. (Uh, no thanks.) To be honest, just standing up and walking across the room is multitasking: Pushing up against the gravity that wants to push me back down, flexing and stretching the muscles that hold me upright in a sustainable posture (back straight, head up), and then the locomotion, the physical movements that take me from here to there. Great observations, Tamara.

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  2. Hi - sorry it took me so long to see this comment! Thank you for your feedback, and for reading!

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