Do we have trouble Multi tasking?

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My ability to multitask depends on the number of people surrounding me, what kind of task I'm doing and how social I have to be. I can multitask just fine alone. Heck, I'd go so far as to say that I might be better than average as long as I'm completely alone, even if those tasks are stressful and complex at the same time.

Stick in a couple of people though and even doing some single tasks can become problematic despite there being no interaction between me and the other people. Now ask me to be social on top of that and even simple things become close to impossible. Don't ask me to cook and chat about the latest gossip at the same time. You might find that sugar has been substituted with salt and vise versa or yoghurt instead of milk because the containers look similar. If the chatting is about the task at hand though, or a topic related to it, things tend to be a lot better.

My guess is that because I'm reasonably good at and so used to constantly fake being NT, most of my mental capacity gets devoted to just deciphering people and trying to do my acting part in this constant show of trying to act normal. Even when not being social, that switch gets flipped on if other people are around in case they might start interacting, not to mention general added sensory workload from people doing things around me. So yeah, if I ever need to get something done, especially if thought is required, I need to be alone.

Can't concentrate on any of the tasks if forced to multitask. And takes a good while to fully get back in what i was doing for one task.

I can't. Apparently, as a woman, I should be able to.

I can't multitask worth a damn. I'm surprised I can walk and chew gum at the same time.

My mother is so bad about interrupting me in the middle of a project for me to do something else. Then she interrupts THAT for another task. Then she gets mad because I didn't finish the others. That's probably because I've already forgotten that I even HAD two previous tasks, and so didn't go back to them when I finished the 3rd one. She says "why can't you work on them all at the same time?" I just want to say to her "Walk around in my head for a while and then ask me that again."

I do, however I seem to be able to listen to things on my earphones while working ok. In fact I often almost need to distract part of my mind in order to focus.

I do quite badly in working memory tests though so it's no wonder I struggle with multitasking.

I'm not a multitasker either. If people throw too many tasks at me at once, I start to feel flutters of panic. My attention is like a spotlight - very bright and intense, but only able to shine on one thing at a time. I'm particularly bad at holding a conversation while doing something else. I've noticed recently that most people can hold a conversation while doing some basic task like cooking. I can't. It gets me into trouble sometimes, maybe because people think I'm ignoring them.

I'm bad at multi-tasking, too -- but that might be my OCD. For instance when I'm cooking, one task kind of morphs into several because I get lots of false alarms like: "Is that pot centered on the burner? OK, now it is. Am I sure? Is that knob turned to 3 or 3.5? Is there electrically a 3.5 setting or is it just 3 or 4? I should research that later..."