Continued from Yesterday....

Are you going some place, as is this little tyke? This is one of my grandsons, Trenton. I think he was not quite two in this picture, and he loved being with his Pappy!  And still does!

The other week his mother and I were discussing video games.  This little guy doesn’t spend much time playing video games and I am so glad of that.

I had mentioned in yesterday’s blog that I had heard a program on the Lancaster based 94.5, WDAC, Christian radio station.  The program really struck my attention. 

They where speaking about multi tasking and that this generation that has grown up with computers everywhere, and by that I mean….a lot of people no longer have hard wired computers as I have, more people these days have lap tops, or notebooks, or even smart phones.  All these items are computers.  My daughter and I am sure most people get messages on their phones when they get an update on Facebook or when they get an email to the email account, or text messages.

I used to be proud of the fact that I could multi-task…now I am not sure that it is a good thing.  Do you know that when you multi-task your level of accuracy goes way down.  Well it only makes sense.  Instead of paying attention to the one important task at hand, you spread yourself around and spread yourself to thin and then instead of making an error on one thing you end up making multiple errors on multiple things.  And to compound matters, what if all the items that you are multi-tasking on are important?  As if when you are at work?  Do you really think that this will be looked upon kindly by your boss?

I can remember having a certain boss years ago, in fact I can tell you that I wasn’t sure that she was a great boss.  But as time went on I found out that not only was she a great boss, but she was also a great person.  She was one of those people that really told you what she thought, and I don’t know about you, but I appreciate that in people.  It’s a level of honesty that we don’t see very often.  I can remember one particular time period when my life was in a bit of turmoil and I frankly was multi-tasking in my brain…In other words my mind was not on the task at hand.  (And when you are in the accounting department, you need to pay attention to your work.) Cheryl said to me,”Kirsten you need to set aside your home problems and think only about what you are doing here!”  Well that was very much to the point and I got it.  I left home at home and dealt with work.  Now in this instance I was multitasking in my brain.  But here is an example of the way we can multitask at work.  When we have the internet open on our screens, we can have several tabs open as well.  I usually have my email and the weather, actually I have two weather tabs open, I work for a construction company, and when you are setting trusses you really don’t want to be doing this when it’s windy, and I will also have a tab for Facebook, sometimes open.

But be careful…If while you are doing your work and you are constantly checking this or checking that your level of mistakes will go up.  No ifs ands or buts!  I have watched it happen to myself.  And as a result I have started keeping my own score, if you would.  One of the things I do is payroll.  Which I also did at my previous job, but I have gone from about 125 (I only processed ½ of the employees) time cards down to about 35, big difference, but you still don’t want to make mistakes on payroll.  Too important.  It’s people money.  I am keeping track of my mistakes, mostly anymore I am not making them but occasionally I do and that lowers my score, because I keep an average going for each year.  I want to see that score be 100%.  I don’t think that my boss even knows that I do this and they don’t read my blog so they won’t know unless they do.  But I want to be able to do a good job.  So I am confining my multi tasking to a minimum.

Now when it comes to children….As you all know my children aren’t children anymore.  But this next generation has grown up multi-tasking and this program that I listened to stated that the amount of errors being made by constant multi-taskers is higher than for people who don’t.  So my statement for all of you parents out there, you might want to reconsider getting a “smart phone” for your children for Christmas, or perhaps limiting the amount of time that it is used.

Let’s try getting back to the good old days, just a little…don’t you young ones out there fret it’s not that terrible, you might find that it’s actually fun to spend time together as a family.  Heck you might even find that you love each other, more than you thought.  Next time you go away in your car as a family, turn the volume off on the cell phones and don’t use them, try looking out the windows, or playing a bill-board game, something that involves everyone, find out what is important again.  My husband and I have a great deal of fun when we are in the car.  We both have a lot to say to each other.  Try it, you might be surprised.

Okay I have been on my soap box long enough and it is time to go and find someone, someone I can secretly bless!