On... Multi Tasking

The company that I used to work for, focused on Safety as a main priority. Therefore there's a Safety Day every year. 

I remember one of these events had a number of booths set up in the main lobby of the office, where we can participate in Safety related 'games'. There was one where you had to simulate driving a car, controlling a toy car on a map. An instructor would give you directions for you to move your car, and at the same time another instructor would talk to you about casual stuff. This is to simulate talking on the phone while driving. 

Needless to say, it was not easy to multi task. And I remember the conclusion of that game very vividly - "You will either end up in an accident, or you will have a very poor conversation". Multi tasking rarely end up with very satisfactory results. The same for driving a car or most other tasks. Of course, for very mundane tasks like listening to music while having a jog, you can multi task as it doesn't require concentration or focus. 

If you zoom out and look at big ticket items in your life, I think you face a similar situation. Most notably for myself is investing. In my opinion, investing full time beats investing part time. Sure you can multi task and do investing part time, but perhaps you will either do poorly in your day job or poorly in your investments or maybe both? I know there are people who invest part time and they do very well, but perhaps that's an exception rather than the norm. 

Of course, not everyone has the opportunity to have a go at investing full time due to personal financial situation. However, I think it is something worth aiming for if I want to invest well. Like what the instructor in the Safety Game said with regards to multi tasking, "You will either end up with an accident, or you will have a very poor conversation".