Multitasking

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Anyone else have issues with multitasking?

I really really have trouble if I have to try and focus on more than one thing at a time. It is even worse if the things I need to do are not interesting to me as then I also have to cope with having the attention span of a goldfish as well.

If what I am trying to focus on is interesting to me I have super focus but I also have a super zoom function where I like to just zoom in on one thing at a time. The problem with super focus and super zoom, however, means that I can do one thing (such as research an interest) for hours on end but nothing else gets done as a result (I tend to lose track of time and am not always very organised).

If I try to do too many things at once though or to force my concentration I can end up either becoming rather irritable and flustered (which usually ends up turning into a ranting fit because I feel overloaded and stressed out) or I go so drowsy all I can do is sleep (even if I want to do things I can't as my brain will not process it).

Are there others who have problems like this?

Multi-tasking is a good term for computers....horrible for most people.

As a rule of thumb, I've found that the more people boast about multi-tasking, the worse I expect the outcome to be.

I am horrible at multitasking-I must do one thing at a time and that is it.

Horrible at it, and it takes me longer to shift my focus from one thing to another. I find it hard to change tasks quickly.

I've had trouble with multitasking although I learned how to do it back when I worked at the supermarket but its been hard on me. I can multitask but not super multitask where you shift your attention from minute to minute. I certainly cant multitask socially when having multiple people bugging me.

Terrible at it.............I have to do it in unusual sequence, fits and starts, and give myself loads of time.

The flipside is the great ability to hyper-focus, but I have not been employing this in a positive sense for ages and ages, because I have not been able to

But one day.

I prefer to focus on one task after another.

Multitasking can be done, but at extreme risk

trust me, you don't wanna be in the car with me and a bee.

One theory of the autistic brain is that it is a "specialised" brain in that there are less connections between the main brain centres hence making multitasking extremely difficult for us. We work better focusing on one thing at a time compared with NTs.
This gives rise to one explanation of why socialising is so difficult for us as socialising involves a LOT of multitasking - tones of voice, words, meaning, facial expressions, body language, trying to understand any hidden meanings, then trying to think our own thoughts and control our own tone of voice, body language, facial expression, focal points, as well as filter all sensory input such as noise, sights, temperature, balance, etc... It results in us missing a LOT of information being put out and hence we make many social mistakes. Then introduce another person into the conversation, and another, and it all just falls apart!

This guy, Bill Nason, describes a lot of this on his facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/autismdiscussi ... tos_stream

Go to the bottom of the photos page and look at the cognitive and information processing stuff he has there. He is VERY knowledgeable about it all in my opinion.

I can multi-task a few things after careful planning such as creating a written schedule for said tasks.

If I'm doing a few things and someone else distracts me with another new task it can cause a problem or seemingly absent mindedness. I may return to what I was doing and completely forget about the other task they were talking about. I try to compensate for that by writing down new tasks and leaving a note for myself where I know I'll find it later.

Multitasking is incredibly inefficient - no one can jump from topic to topic. However, I'm expected to multitask, despite psychological research that multitasking is bunk.
Removing distractions is key. But what to do when being interrupted by others, email or the bird singing outside the window.
I'm endeavoring into slicing each work day into: email, phone calls, project 1, project 2, issues. Use of Outlook and the calendar may be helpful.
There's another part of multitasking I have difficulty in changing hats all in one day: customer service rep, problem solver, accountant, athlete, manager, subordinate, writer, dad. When three or more are combined, then it gets difficult.

Good piece search for wikihow multitask
WP won't allow me to provide the link yet.

musicians and athletes multitask with aplomb, their multicore brains set them apart from the rest of us mere mortals born under a lesser god. among the rest of us, the best of us can multithread or rapidly switch focus between one task and another, with few hitches. high intelligence [extraordinarily efficient neural wiring] and multitasking/multithreading ability go hand in hand.