Facilitating Paradox

As a parent juggling family, work and school for years, I’ve gotten used to multitasking and juggling projects. Recently I’ve coined two new catch-phrases for those sometimes frustrating situations I find myself in:

Back-tasking: Doing something so that you can do something else that will allow you to do the task you originally set out to do. E.g.: You’re thirsty and you want some of that cool, filtered water from the fridge, but you find the filter empty. After raging at the culprit who left it empty, you take it to the sink to fill it yourself. But the sink is full of dirty dishes. You check the calendar to see who’s got kitchen duty, but they’re not around anyway. You open the dishwasher to start loading them but it’s full of clean dishes. In order to empty the sink you have to empty the dishwasher. Empty dishwasher so you clear the sink so you can fill the water pitcher so you can get a drink--that’s back-tasking. And of course, what should have taken a few seconds now takes several minutes... and you wonder where all the time went. From my experience in project management I know how to document all this in a T-minus schedule. Sometimes family life can be that complex and demanding.

Stack-tasking: Setting out to do something and, while you’re doing that, starting something else that needs to be done. E.g.: You head upstairs to bring down a load of dirty laundry. While picking socks up off the bathroom floor you notice that the toilet paper roll is empty. While grabbing a new roll of TP you notice that the trash can is full. While tying up the trash bag you notice that one of the light bulbs has burned out. Well, replacement light bulbs are in the basement, and you’re going their anyway, so put the trash bag on top of the dirty laundry and head downstairs. Now you’re not just doing laundry, but two other tasks as well. Don’t forget the light bulb and another trash bag on your way up. And, while you were upstairs, did that roll of TP actually make it onto the spindle? Household tasks can be added together like so many nested ifs. If you’re not careful you’ll get lost and forget what you originally set out to do. I hear this happens a lot in old age...