What Burnt Pancakes Taught Me About Multitasking

We like to think of multitasking as a form of time management. In reality, it can turn into a massive time waster. I discovered this the hard way recently, making breakfast.

Knowing I had an active day ahead of me, I decided to carb up by cooking a large stack of pancakes.

I use an instant mix, so, I expected it to take no longer than ten minutes before sitting down to eat. I’d then have the kitchen cleaned up and be out the door less than 30 minutes later.

Twenty minutes later, however, not a single pancake was made, and I was glaring a searing hole through my second frying pan.

See, I had decided to spend those ten cooking minutes wisely by listening to a podcast. What I didn’t take into account was that that particular podcast required active listening.

I became so enmeshed in the listening that I started imagining how I would explain the subject matter to my friends. As I imaginarily explained it, I made coffee and added milk. As I took my first sip, I noticed a cloud of smoke billowing from the stove. Paying so much attention to the podcast and coffee, I had forgotten to flip the first pancake

After throwing that pancake away and cleaning the pan, I started again. But because I was focused on skipping back in the podcast to catch…