Why won't my sim sit still?

What I do as a workaround for this problem is disabling autonomy for active sim only, and when I have to take care of another sim in the household, I just pause the game to queue their actions and switch back to the reading sim so they can't decide to do something else while I queued something up for the other sim.

One of the features added in the sims4 was allowing sims to multitask, doing several things at the same time. The idea behind it was to save players time by having sims fill their needs at the same time. But that hasn't been well regulated, resulting in your sim possibly taking their plate of food to their nearest toilet and sit down to do their bladder business while continuing to fill their hunger need. And if you have another sim on the lot with high enough social relations they may walk in on your sim, be totally comfortable with what that sim is doing on the toilet, and start a conversation so their social needs also get filled...
Sims in the Sims 4 are very bad at focusing on just one task, especially with autonomy turned on, as the game will always look for anything else that sim can do in addition to whatever they're already doing and direct them to do so.

Yebb. This makes trying to finish aspiration tasks that has to take couple of hours in one sitting a bear. Even just to get one hour I have to watch my Sim like a hawk. I am also experiencing, with one of my robotics Sims, when she is working on the robotic table, in the livingroom where the tv is she is always cancelling her robotics to watch tv. I always have to cancel it when it comes up and if I am not fast enough, she will quit and head for the tv.

I have also noticed that Sims will quit conversations and go do something else. This is especially annoying when they have visitors over and I want them to get to know them.

I've noticed, since I do alot of building, that separating rooms, even with arches, (or at least in build mode if it's cut technically into different rooms) cuts down on them randomly wanting to do other things. Like if you have the fridge & stove in the same small room as the TV, they will more often than not go watch TV instead of finishing cooking, unless the TV is out of watching range where they're cooking in a large room area.
For computers, you can set security settings. Only allow certain sims to use, of just lock it out for everyone until you change it.

As for books, there is a small small mod fix for that. Also for putting things in inventory instead of dropping them everywhere or back on the bookshelf. Very handy mod! But otherwise, maybe you should just lock them in a room until they finish the book, heh!

EDIT: I guess I'd be a mean teacher, "You're in detention in that little room until you finish reading that plum book! And I'll be asking questions about it, so I suggest you actually read it!" :D

Just for fun, reminds me of this clip. :D

"You can survive without your text and your apps, your beepy boops, your facy faces, and your tweety flaps."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDEv3VyGtxk

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I tried disabling autonomy, but now she just stands there doing nothing. I want my sims to have some autonomy, just not be scatterbrained about it. The comment about the multitasking seems to be right. Too bad EA overdid it. Maybe they'll fix it in a future update. Thanks everyone!

Where can I get the mod about the books?

"spankenstein89;c-17444323" wrote:
I tried disabling autonomy, but now she just stands there doing nothing. I want my sims to have some autonomy.

I agree. I prefer autonomy rather than brain-dead zombies. ;)

I'll see if I can find the mod. I'll pm it if I do.

"spankenstein89;c-17444323" wrote:
Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I tried disabling autonomy, but now she just stands there doing nothing. I want my sims to have some autonomy, just not be scatterbrained about it. The comment about the multitasking seems to be right. Too bad EA overdid it. Maybe they'll fix it in a future update. Thanks everyone!

Where can I get the mod about the books?

For autonomy I forgot to mention that you can turn off autonomy for the selected sim only so if you have multiple sims there will still be autonomy for the ones that are not selected at the time. You can use that to give your sim some autonomy but still have control while they are selected. Hope this helps!

"ShadyLady_DQ;c-17444375" wrote:

"spankenstein89;c-17444323" wrote:
Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I tried disabling autonomy, but now she just stands there doing nothing. I want my sims to have some autonomy, just not be scatterbrained about it. The comment about the multitasking seems to be right. Too bad EA overdid it. Maybe they'll fix it in a future update. Thanks everyone!

Where can I get the mod about the books?

For autonomy I forgot to mention that you can turn off autonomy for the selected sim only so if you have multiple sims there will still be autonomy for the ones that are not selected at the time. You can use that to give your sim some autonomy but still have control while they are selected. Hope this helps!

Yes it helps. Thanks!