Journal #39 - Multi-tasking

I personally think that I am a horrible multi-tasker. Every night when I work on homework I always work on it at my computer desk. This causes many distractions and somehow I still get my homework done. I typically open itunes when I sign on to my home computer. After doing so I put my library of music on shuffle and continue to listen to music until I am done with all of my homework. However, whenever I do this (which is every night) I find that the homework that I am doing takes sometimes up to three times longer than it really should. One time I was working on some physics homework that was not very hard and should have only taken me like ten minutes. It was just using an equation that he had given us and plugging in the numbers from the word problem. It took me about forty-five minutes because I would stop to change the song that was playing after each sentence I read. I could not focus for more than about thirty seconds at a time. This would be frustrating to some, but it makes working on homework for me somewhat enjoyable. I usually sing to the songs that are playing on my computer, which intereferes with my thinking process. I dare you to try to think about something mathematical while singing every song lyric to a five minute song. It takes talent, but regardless of what you think, singing slows down your thinking process and makes it so that you will take longer in any task that you attempt. I think that considering the circumstances, I do pretty well at multi-tasking on homework. But it doesn't matter how much I try, multi tasking slows down the tasks that you are trying to complete. I would not suggest multi tasking when you do something that is important because not only does it slow the time it should take to complete, but it also lowers the comprehension on the subject you are trying to work on. Luckily when I work on homework like this I usually already understand what I am doing, so it is typically just a mind numbingly boring process in the first place. But I try to not multitask when I am working on something that actually requires focus, like a reflection or a project.