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On your phone and doing ten other things? You're normal.

Filed under: Style in the News, Steals and Deals


Have you ever found yourself holding car keys, answering the phone, juggling a bag of groceries and trying to keep a toddler from throwing himself into the path of a speeding Fedex truck?

How about leading a conference call, taking notes, eating lunch and formatting a presentation, all at once? Or making dinner, talking to your mother, letting the dog in, and paying your bills online?

We're positive you said yes to at least one of these scenarios. And, did you notice that the phone is a common denominator in these stories? Cell phones are even more leash-like than those long cords that tether those olive-colored kitchen telephones, and no one has time to "just" talk on the phone.

We've long suspected that women multi-task at an astounding rate, and now we have "scientific" proof. Phone giant Motorola commissioned an independent agency to survey 500 women to measure how much we multitask. Naturally the questions all centered around stuff we do while using cell phones, because that's their business.

The results paint the picture you'd expect, except even more dramatic than we guessed. Ninety-seven percent of women ages 18-34 multitask while on their cell phones, and 62 percent of those ages 18-34 juggle two or three activities while talking on the cell phone. Interestingly, only 16 percent of women ages 55 and older were doing other things while using their cell phones. Either you get better at figuring out how to get everything done as you get more experience, or those ladies are all still using their olive green kitchen phones. We suspect it's the latter.

The (totally unintentionally) funniest part of the survey was the list of mishaps that happen while you're multitasking on a cell phone:
• dropping it (46%)
• accidentally disconnecting the call (38%)
• being unable to multitask effectively (35%)
• developing a pain or kink in their neck (29%)

Yup. Raise your hand if you ever dropped your phone in the toilet. Shamefacedly we lift our hand.

Of course, the folks at Motorola concluded that the solution to all of these mishaps is a nice, hands-free headset. We're not sure if that will really make your multi-tasking any easier, but we're happy to pass along their coupon for 20% off select Motorola products at Best Buy, good now through June 30th. We multitaskers love a bargain and they have some cute phones. Enjoy!

Video is by the hilarious John Roberts.

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