Multi-threaded or virtual? Press any key to continue

I've been aware of the trend of super multi-tasking for many years now, but today for some reason it just really begged for attention. We are ourselves becoming multi-threaded creatures in a virtual world.

When I was a kid it would drive my parents crazy for me to attempt to watch more than one TV show at a time.

You know the drill, watch a show and at commercial break switch back over to the others. In fact TV manufacturers actually put time delay buttons on your remote so you could "skip" the ads (the button had 15, 30, 60 sec increments etc) thus freeing you to explore other channels. With today's pause live TV, DVRs and the like, multi show viewing has become even more alluring.

When tabbed browsing came out for web browsers, I took to it slowly. Now I frequently have to stop what I'm doing and close two dozen tabbed websites because my machine has slowed noticeably from the amount of RAM I'm using.

When tabbed browsing surfaced for IM windows, I quietly adopted it.

When Hootsuite.com came out with tabbed Twitter browsing, I jumped right in.

When you see kids today simultaneously watching a TV show, texting, carrying on an IM conversation, while web browsing and checking email, you realize we ourselves have become the latest "instruction set" for the CPU. Thank you Intel and AMD!:)

Multiple monitors, virtualization programs running on our desktop so we can run Windows, Mac and Linux simultaneously too. The list is endless.

It's not just for high tech issues either.

Recently while at home I had to run an errand. I found myself timing my departure with moving a load of laundry from the washing machine to the dryer so that I could load another wash load so that I could "multi-thread" my domestic needs. I found it unacceptable to leave the house without that procedure in place!

Like all things in life the answer is balance. How do you conduct your own personal multi-threading or virtual existence?