Is there anything in life that doesn’t require multi-tasking skills of some sort or another? At any stage in life?
Employers want workers who can juggle. Husbands, children, lovers, and readers expect you to be able to swivel from one thing to another.
If readers like your series, they’re panting in expectation for your next book so they can re-enter the world you made them love. Or so authors say. I can’t quite convince myself that the world is breathless in anticipation of my next mystery.
If I were to be granted a superpower, I’d wish for a no cost, safe, effective multi-tasking ability. Think how many books you could write before flopping, exhausted, into your favorite chair? It’s probably sensible to write when you’re writing, and market (hustle books) when you’re marketing. I end up trying to do both at once. I’m an impatient, jittery sort of person. I was once known as Instant Grat or Mar Presto.
My particular enemy is flipping back and forth on Facebook, reading interesting articles about world affairs. Do I think I have to take a test or something? Am I preparing for Jeopardy? No, I’m not. I’m procrastinating working on my current novel. At one point in multi-tasking I thought leaping from one novel to another when I reached an impasse would make the work easier. Not so. It made both of them hard.
I’ve read that while it may seem you’re being productive flipping from one screen, one item on your to do list to another, the researchers say there is a cognitive cost. You’re not nearly as smart as you think you are. Aging will drive that point home as well. Oh yes.
Perhaps you might find my police procedural series about a Santa Monica cop and his activist girlfriend interesting. If you like them, please leave me a review.