Multi-tasking is key in the quest to become Dr Ainsworth and I would argue that I am, on the whole, quite skilled at juggling multiple tasks at once. I do so on a regular day-to-day basis with little conscious effort or advanced planning. I just do. We all do.
Unfortuntately (and really, REALLY frustrating for me), it would seem that there are two specific tasks that I simply cannot combine successfullly, even though I specifically set out with the intention of doing them both at the same time: picking up printing from the mail room and making myself a cup of tea. Why this is this case, I have absolutely no idea.
Let me explain (if you care enough to keep reading, I won't be offended if you don't! This is a rather mundane rant after all!):
Me and my fellow officemates are based on the top floor of our building. Most of the printers are based on the floor below us. To get there requires a hop, skip and a jump along the corridor, with the opening of many doors along the way, down the stairs, through more doors and into the mail room to collect our printing. Conveniently, or so it should be, next door to the mail room is the meeting room, home to the tea-making facilities.
After being sat at a desk for a few hours, as I'm sure many people will sympathise with, it's nice to have a walk to stretch your legs and it's definitely nice to have a cup of tea! Although I may wish to stretch my legs I don't want to walk up and down the stairs all day long so I often try to kill two birds with one stone. I will send things to the printer when I know I'm going to want a cup of tea so I can walk down, put the kettle on, collect the printing, make the tea and return to my office triumphant and looking semi-productive to passers-by as I stroll past with my pile of articles or chapter drafts.
99.9% of the time this plan fails. I return with tea but no printing or printing but no tea. It's not until I've walked back upstairs and got back to my desk when I realise my mistake, curse, and have to go all the way back down again. Granted, it's not far, but it's the principle of the matter which irritates me the most. I wouldn't be half as annoyed if it didn't happen almost EVERY single time! ARGH!!!
It doesn't matter which order I try and do things in either. If I put the kettle on and then go straight to the mail room while the kettle boils then I forget to go and make the tea. If I wait for the kettle to boil I head straight back upstairs once the tea is made. There's no winning. EVER.
I could always look on the bright side and think of it as a few extra calories burned but if I'd wanted to do that I wouldn't have tried to do the two things at the same time now would I?
Answers on a postcard as to how on earth I fix my main multi-tasking failure gratefully received!
Ciao for now.
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