Anyone have trouble multitasking? (psychologist, inability, animals, mentally)
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No pilot error. The site was such a mess that night I had to get someone to help through chat.
Ok but site issues with one particular site on one particular night are not an indictment of technology in general. I'm sure there have been times going to a store where the roads were a mess and you got stuck in traffic.
Ok but site issues with one particular site on one particular night are not an indictment of technology in general. I'm sure there have been times going to a store where the roads were a mess and you got stuck in traffic.
Without getting into all the details of my local store (feel free to message me) it kind of does. It's not an isolated incident. Well, 45 minutes is, but websites being more graphically intensive and flashy are the norm these days. And that comes at a cost of speed.
Amazon, eBay, Etsy do functional pretty well. Many others don't.
I did web development for one of my jobs so I do have a little inside knowledge on usability and interface issues.
Not just at work but in general. Most people seem to have a lot of balls in the air at the same time, but I feel like I have to complete what I am working on before I tackle anything else. Sometimes that is impossible but there is always a feeling of tension when moving on to something else when the first thing isn't finished. I am introverted also a bit OCD don't know if that has anything to do with it. I don't like making mistakes or breezing over anything, or interruptions.
I'm in a situation now where I unexpectedly have to get some important things done within a short time frame. People are waiting on me and asking about this or that. It isn't working out to do one at a time, I have to start one, then wait for someone to call me back or do something to start the other then go back and forth. It is exhausting and stressful, most people just think it is normal.
I cannot talk on the phone while driving or eating or anything, must have full attention on one thing. I get lots of phone calls from people driving or out somewhere with busy background noise. It seems chaotic, I don't know how people can ignore all the outside "noise" in their head with all kinds of things going on at once, or from the actual environment.
I used to be good at multitasking. Now? Not so much. And driving while talking on a cell phone? Never did that. It's just stoopid.
Without getting into all the details of my local store (feel free to message me) it kind of does. It's not an isolated incident. Well, 45 minutes is, but websites being more graphically intensive and flashy are the norm these days. And that comes at a cost of speed.
Amazon, eBay, Etsy do functional pretty well. Many others don't.
I did web development for one of my jobs so I do have a little inside knowledge on usability and interface issues.
And I'm a full-time software developer for web apps. Large apps are built on established frameworks. If you don't like how one vendor works for you, find another. Same as you would B&M.
Yes, all these things that are supposed to make life more efficient (for someone) just take more time and add frustration. You should hear me when I'm trying to make a Petco order! Since I order almost the same things every time, it should be a 5 minute task. Sometimes it takes 45. (then I get the "how did we do?" email, I respond with how slow and difficult it is, nothing changes) <sigh>
I just want to say that I totally agree with you about the Petco website. There's no excuse for how bad it is.
I am part of their rewards program, my cat's got a health issue that has me buying some rather expensive food for him, so the savings is great to have. But whenever I get rewards (as I'm sure you know) they email me and then I have to visit their awful website to "load them" to my account. Why that cannot just be an automatic process the way it is for grocery stores and everything else, I have no idea. And my antivirus used to be convinced for a while, that the website was malicious, and would pop up warning after warning about it, and block parts of it.
It's just bad. Very bad.
And it does not stop there, either. If you actually go into the store, and you want to use your rewards, the poor cashier has to contend with their garbage point of sale software, and they are inevitably standing there impatiently tapping the buttons over and over until it finally decides to register and apply the rewards discounts.
They really need to fire whoever it is they've got doing software development for them.
Anyhow, to circle back to the subject...
For those who think it's "stoopid" to talk on the phone while driving, I would say that if you know yourself, how your brain works, and your own bandwidth and capabilities well enough to know that it's unsafe for you, then GOOD. Don't!
For me though, having a hands free call is not more distracting than a conversation with another passenger or music playing in the car. I do not have to use my hands to even dial, I don't have to take my eyes off the road, I can just give my car a voice command to call somebody. But for me it is precisely the same as the aforementioned audio "distractions"...if I am on a very routine commute or I'll be on the same highway for the next few hours, then my brainpower is not being fully engaged by driving. I'm almost just sitting there on mental auto pilot. So finding another form of stimulation keeps me ALERT. But if I have to get off on an exit in an unfamiliar place, or I encounter construction and need to pay increased attention, I will ask whoever I'm talking to (on the phone, or a passenger) to hang on until I've made my way through that, or I will turn off the music if I find it too mentally distracting, which I often do.
I see it as the mind being somewhat like a computer, different tasks needing to pull more or less processing resources at different times depending on the complexity of them. And one must, of course, know which ones must take priority. But if I just allow my brain to "idle" then it will try to go into "sleep mode." Which is not a good thing when doing 75 down the interstate!
Without getting into all the details of my local store (feel free to message me) it kind of does. It's not an isolated incident. Well, 45 minutes is, but websites being more graphically intensive and flashy are the norm these days. And that comes at a cost of speed.
Amazon, eBay, Etsy do functional pretty well. Many others don't.
I did web development for one of my jobs so I do have a little inside knowledge on usability and interface issues.
Oh, that’s interesting. My husband died about four years ago give or take, and he was an ardent eBayer. And that website was constantly slow and glitchy.
Makes me wonder if it was our Internet.
Soon after he died, I closed both of our eBay accounts and PayPal‘s. I just don’t use them. I don’t like where eBay went. I also don’t like Amazon. I have a real low tolerance for shenanigans, and twice I’ve gotten bad products — as in faked. So at this point the only thing I purchase on Amazon are phone charger cords.
I still prefer going to the grocery, but I haven’t stepped foot in Target in I don’t know how long, and I shop there a lot. On my phone via pick up. I find their app to be very easy to use.
yes i cannot do multitasking very well. for one thing, being constantly interrupted ruins your concentration and if your boss expects you to drop the 1st task and deal with the 2nd one, then when you return to the 1st task, you waste time trying to find where you left off. plus i hear its a scientific fact that you cannot think two thoughts at once.
i had a real problem with concentration and making mistakes, i think the constant interruptions really hurt that.
I agree, except where does it end? It seems we are being prodded and compelled to move faster and faster as time goes on. Younger people can handle it, but for me and others I've talked to about it, it's a combination of natural slowing and also wanting to get the heck away from all that. More and more, I get really stressed out with all the tasks and passwords, patient portals, online forms, websites not working, a lot of the time it's overwhelming and not a good feeling at all.
I'm thinking of the times when separately I helped my mother and then my father. People would praise me but mostly I just felt the stress. And my own life suffered, but that was my own fault. Nobody was going to make my dental appts or get me to the dentist or the gym but me!
Tamajane, do you think it's just you that feels like you're failing or not doing things well enough? Are you getting grief from someone(s)? Does it seem worse to you than it actually is (not trying to be critical here, just wondering).
Unfortunately I am executor of a complicated estate. I am not inexperienced at this but it is particularly difficult. I can't concentrate on something, especially if it is something involved, without completing something else I had started. I get a kind of brain-freeze. It feels like multitasking even if I'm not actively working on it because other stuff in process is taking up so much space in my mind that I can't properly execute the next thing until I have the others completed and off my mind - like checking off a list. When time is of the essence and there are a hundred things to do, its crazy and with me things have been delayed
because of this. No one is complaining about it really, though they are asking about this or that and understand there is a lot to do. I just wish I could juggle things better and work more efficiently to get things completed faster.
I definitely put my own life on hold when I am dealing with something like this but I could not concentrate on anything else right now anyway.
Life doesn't just give us one challenge or task at a time though so this isn't a great way to operate.
But this acquaintance of mine is practically unable to absorb new information. Probably because his brain is overloaded. It is hard for him to learn new things, especially if it is not his field of work. He can't understand the essence of things. He thinks very superficially, but very practically. He could not read Marcus Aurelius or Epicurus, for example. He has a purely practical everyday mind. He seems a little silly to me. Although he cooks well, he knows how to hold a knife so as not to cut himself, how to open jars if they are tightly closed. But one day I complained that I had pimples, and he said that's because of lack of sex. Then I stopped eating sweets and the pimples went away. But the acquaintance of mine still thinks that all pimples are because of lack of sex. This is so stupid, so I can't consider him smart, despite the fact that he's able to hold a lot of information in his head.
That actually makes sense. Somethings gotta give, no one's perfect I guess. Have to remember that. LOL pimples from lack of sex. Some old wives tale that stuck in his head maybe.
Same for me. I could read and watch TV at the same time.
My mother tried to do that. All well and good with some shows but she tried to do it with the original Mission: Impossible. A show filled with multiple layers of double crossing plots of every description. She was always lost within the first 5 or 10 minutes.
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Solly says — Be nice!
