Neal has been wanting to learn two or three different software programs and needs a Mac to run some of them, so I volunteered my G4 for as long as his studies last.
Since I use two computers – the G4 for most things art and a PC for most things writing – it became necessary to backup the G4 files to the PC so I had access to them when Neal was using the G4.
Consequently, I spent a good part of the day today multi-tasking. G4 files were copied onto a flash drive, then the off the flash drive onto the PC. Some of them were quite large, so I could start them copying and do other work while they copied.
Copy some files from G4 to flash, then write a little bit.
Copy some files from the flash to the PC, then paint a little bit.
Copy some files; do some dishes.
Copy some files; make the bed.
Copy some files; work on laundry.
I didn’t quite get to the point of doing file transfer and cleaning the bathroom, but it was a close call!
I don’t mind multitasking in this manner. The computers pretty much do what they’re supposed to do whether or not I’m babysitting them.
But regardless of conventional wisdom on the benefits of multi-tasking, I find it distracting, derailing and discouraging. When I do more than one thing at a time, none of the things I do get done as quickly or as well as when I give them dedicated attention. When I try to do more than one thing at a time, I usually have to go back over each thing to clean up errors, finish work that was either not quite completed or poorly done and try to remember what I did when and whether or not it should be checked.
It was a good day, today. A new portrait reached the first of seven stages in the painting process. The rewrite and editing on Perfect Opportunities went smoothly again after a few days of struggle. A large portion of those G4 files made it over to the PC.
I’m glad to have all of them done and hope to finish the file transfer tomorrow.
But I also hope to give more focused attention to writing and to painting throughout the day tomorrow instead multi-tasking another day away.
Neal has been wanting to learn two or three different software programs and needs a Mac to run some of them, so I volunteered my G4 for as long as his studies last.