Will you fail at multitasking?

I've written about this before, mostly regarding people who drive and talk on their phones at the same time.  There are many who think multitasking isn't as difficult as it seems, especially if you happen to be female.  This is because some pudding head researchers have deduced that men and women think differently.  Men compartmentalize their activities completing one before moving on to the next.  Women, on the other hand, don't compartmentalize.  As a result many of them think they can multitask, like brush their teeth and put on eye makeup at the same time.  That, I think, would be really funny to watch.  Anyway, there are a lot of people out there, both men and women, who feel they can drive and talk on the phone at the same time.  Surprise, you're wrong.  Think of it this way, if you're involved in a casual phone conversation where you only need to respond minimally, you're driving the same as if you'd just had two or three glasses of wine, say a good Shiraz.  This doesn't mean you're beginning to weave back and forth, it's just that your concentration is just not there.  The more detailed your phone conversation the worse your driving becomes.

This is not me

I'll be the first to admit that I don't multitask well at all.  If you don't want to believe me, you can ask the people I work with, they'll be too happy to corroborate.  However, I can get quite a number of tasks done if work on them consecutively.  Give me a list of things to do and bang, bang, bang they're done.

Now I know some of you might think I'm full of crap.  Here's a link to a little test which will show you just how well you, yourself, can multitask.  I tried it.  I failed.  It's a little like trying to brush your teeth and put your eye makeup on at the same time, not that I wear eye makeup, but I'm sure you'll understand if you try the test.  Evidently only about 2% of the population can actually multitask, and that number includes both men and women.  This means that all of those pudding heads out there who want to believe that we men, with our compartmentalized brains, are just the slightest bit inferior to women, well... you're full of pudding.