You start working on a task and your working memory starts filling up with various task related information. One of your children interupts you. Maybe whilst attending to that interruption, another child interrupts you again. By the time you get back to your tasks, you have forgotten what your were working on and the time required to get back to the point you were at, is often longer than what it took you the first time. By the time you are back at the task the cycle repeats itself.
By the end of this sort of experience I feel very stunned and my mind is completely empty. Now if I was a monk I could possibly rejoice in reaching some level of nirvanna, being able to think about nothing, but I'm not.
The problems I have with this experience are:
- I don't enjoy it, it isn't much fun
- It seems that the more I experience this, the less capable I am at handling them
When I was younger I could multitask and handle interruptions with ease, but now in my late 30s (not really that old) even a small interruption causes me to forget what I'm working on. So here are my questions.
1. How can I improve my ability to work with interruptions? i.e. how can I make myself more resilient ?
2. When I do get into that "stunned" state, how do I get back to a normal working state ?