Petrarch on time and multi-tasking

"The riches of time are the most uncertain, the most fleeting, of all possessions" (Letters on Familiar Matters 17.12). Petrarch knew this most keenly. As he once told Francesco Nelli, while he was being "shaved or having my hair cut I commonly read or write or listen to a reader or dictate to a scribe" (Letters on Familiar Matters 21.12). He would have loved the devices we have today to multitask!