It is often assumed that time is an immutable measure, but we need to remember that linear definitions of time used to organise our lives, assume that we do things sequentially, like on assembly lines. The models of tasks are therefore those developed in the industrial workplace. This assumes that tasks are easily separated and distinct, and that they are best accomplished one after the other. But care time is not amenable to this. Household time is more aptly described as cyclical, like the times of seasons.
Most tasks are never completed, they recur and replenish like the full dirty clothes basket.
We also deal with them in overlays rather than sequentially, doing various things at one time - putting on the wash, admiring the toddler's drawing, overseeing the babys safe passage, and making sure the cake is not burning, all while working out what to cook for dinner and listening to mother complain about her arthritis on the phone. She points out that Newtonian linear time is very much the artefact of modernity and bound to the culture of industrial society. It was found that women do much of their care at work. They use the telephone to organise the household - delegating chores, planning and organising tasks so they can be completed in minimum personal time, offering emotional support and personal validation to a child doing homework, or spilling her news or pain over the phone. These are associated with women, and are less valued in the public sphere than the male defined abstracted rationality, seen as part of the workplace.