I might have mastered the art of multitasking . Although I do enjoy cooking , I feel like many days it takes up a lot of time. That’s partially because when I do cook, I’m always making a large dish or a meat with two side items, with some rice or pasta. Because of this, I have been trying to use the oven more so I did not feel like I have to hover over the stove and babysit the food. This frees up my hands and attention so I can do other things while the food cooks itself. So…what did I choose to do? ??

Get in some exercise on the pole! I’m about to consume some calories, so why not burn off some calories while I’m waiting? I often listen to music while I cook anyway to give me some accompaniment while I stalk and breathe all over the food, but this particular day, I decided to change things up. The dishes had already been washed, and I needed to occupy myself so I wouldn’t keep letting the heat out of the oven every five minutes to check on the food.

Why would I do this? One thing we can never get back is time.  Multi-tasking has always been time-saving, assuming you can do both or all of your tasks well and without increasing the amount of time it takes to do each task. With this chicken alfredo pasta and pole dancing combination, both tasks could be done without sacrificing quality. In fact, I practiced some new tricks while the pasta was cooking. I did this by watching some lovely YouTube tutorials and then attempting them after wiping the pole down with a firm hand to thoroughly degrease it.

It also keeps me from “harassing” the food, as I mentioned earlier. One thing about cooking with the oven instead of on the stove is that I do feel like I shouldn’t be checking on the food quite so often. I got into the habit of constantly checking the food because making pasta on the stove required my constant supervision with a sauce pan, a pan cooking the chicken, and a pot of boiling water (and noodles!) all going at the same time. When I make pasta in the oven, I throw all of those ingredients into one deep casserole dish and cook them at all at once. It’s been a lost less of a headache and has freed me up to get some stuff done while dinner makes itself.

The whole point of this post is not to tell you that you have  to pole dance while you make pasta, but to inform you of another way that you can make life run a little bit easier. You can do this with a crock pot meal or an oven dish, though, I wouldn’t recommend this with a stove meal unless it is being cooked at a low temperature. That’s just a suggestion from my own experiences with cooking. Now, this is an excellent opportunity to pole dance or use the elliptical or put on a zumba or aerobics video, or even to attempt an Insanity workout or P90X. Let me not leave out yoga, because it also has many mental and physical benefits that cannot be overlooked and the flexibility it gives you will come in handy for doing any sort of physical activity, but also improve your physical health for daily life.

It is possible to make time where you’ve often felt you’ve had none by applying multitasking to everything. There have been days that I have been extra, super uber productive by popping food in the oven, throwing a load of clothes in the washing machine, and pacing while I use a voice dictation software to write some blog posts. You just have to think about what can be done at the same time and what does not require your constant presence. Any number of machine-automated activities can increase the number of tasks you can get done in one day and make everyday just that much more productive. As you master this, you will also create more free time because you’ll get more done in a shorter amount of time. This leads to less stress and better mental health. Good luck on your journey, and now, it’s back to pole dancing for me.