Are Sims less productive when you're not actively controlling them?

[SimPoseyYum]

My preferred playstyle is to manage the lives of singletons or, at most, duos/couples or families with just one child.  I tend to stay away from larger households unless I have a specific reason to work with them (Challenges).  That said, I'm currently working on a multi-Sim household, and I have a question.

I've noticed that Sim A, for example, will reel in catch after catch of higher quality deathfish if I'm with her at the graveyard but if I send her there on her own while I work with someone else, she may get only one or two, and they tend to be normal or nice at best.  Or she'll pull in fish that I didn't even know were available in the graveyard pool.  As another example, I might assign Sim B a full queue of activities and go off to work with someone else.  I'll return a few moments later to find she's cancelled out my schedule (I doubt she finished the list -- there wasn't enough time) and is reading a book.  And it's not even a book that's going to help her advance!

Is it my imagination, it is mere coincidence or are Sims truly less productive when I'm not actively controlling them?

[MoMoll]

I've noticed the same thing for some activities. However, an atheletic sim will work out without being told. Those who play guitar do it constantly and therefore progress. Same with painting, if they have the artistic trait, they will paint when not told. But for some skills, they'll just sit and read, or play computer games.

[Saltypaws]

I have noticed though, on a few occasions, I will have my sim read a skill book or play chess.  I will change households and play with another family for a while and will return to the other household, to find that either he has completed getting his skill or still at it and their needs don't go down.  Same with teaching a toddler to walk or talk, *yawn*.  I will have the parent start teaching the little one to walk or talk and then change households.  Will come back later and they are finished.  If I stay in the same household and tell a sim what to do and maybe go to another sim, the first sim will usually finish what I had told them to do.

[SimPoseyYum]

Makes it a bit more challenging, I guess.  I'd love to send my angler off and have her return with a bucketful of Perfect Deathfish.  Instead, she comes home with a guppy or two.  Slacker!   I suppose I'll have to dig a deathfish hole in the backyard. That way, I can keep an eye on her and crack the whip if need be. 

[MoonsAreBlue]

Like MoMoll said, sims with skill related traits will generally skill when not told to, but they do it all the time when there isn't anything in their queue. One thing I've noticed that really gets on my nerves is with delivery opportunities. I can send a Sim A off to finish the opportunity, say delivering an upgraded stereo. And as soon as I de-select Sim A, she refuses to complete the delivery. I have to keep her selected in order for her to continue driving to the other sim's location.  I also find it very often that sims just cancel everything in their queue, and it's very frustrating sometimes. So basically yes, I think sims are much less productive when not selected.

[Noodles]

I am a total control freak, and usually play households of 4-8 sims. My playing includes a lot of pause-button and switching back and forth between sims... 
That's because, like you SimPoseyYum, I've noticed both of those things you described.

First of all, if I let them do even one thing as they please, they do something that's a total waste of time. Like play computer when their fun moodlet is maxed etc etc.

Recently I've also noticed that the queue seems to disappear when I switch to check another sim. I noticed this recently, I'm sure it didn't happen before on my games. I got LN some time ago, and was thinking maybe it's the celebrity thing (photos/autographs cut the queue) but I tested it, and often the queue disappears at the moment I enter map view. Not always, but often... VERY annoying! I'm wondering if something in the game changed in some update, because I never had this problem and then it became common.

Also, I have a feeling that sims that are not "watched" are less productive. I've noticed the same thing with my fisherman, he might fish all day but not accomplish too much if I just leave him there alone. I was thinking I might be imagining it, but you're now saying the same thing... maybe it is true. 

[CSquared2]

Another activity similar to teaching toddlers skills: teaching teens to drive.  Every time I've tried this and followed the pair, the teen will learn in one session if both Sims have reasonably full need bars.  If I don't pay attention, it's likely to take several days as I counteract the stress of learning to drive and simultaneously deal with those Sims' other responsibilities and other family members.

[SimPoseyYum]

As I said, I don't play a lot of families.  Every time I've had kids, I was right there, actively managing the kid phases.  And, although I own Gen, I haven't installed it yet, so no teen driving lessons.

At least I'm not imagining things.  Left to their own devices, it seems my Sims aren't as ambitious as I'd like.  Or maybe they're just a whole lot more laid back.  In any event, off I go to dig that deathfish hole in the yard.  Now, where did I put that whip?

[CSquared2]

Now, where did I put that whip?

Here, you can borrow mine.  

On the flip side of your observation, Sims in TS3 are also far less likely to kill themselves or others as they were in previous versions.  Armed with a smoke detector and sufficient doors, they do quite well for themselves.  

[Figwit]

I have noticed this too, SimPoseyYum.  Actually I first noticed it in Sims Medieval but it also happens in Sims 3.  I guess it is all about taking the load off your processor if they power down a bit. 

[MoMoll]

If you play a sim with the 'party animal" trait, all they want to do is dance or go skinny dipping! They drop their queues all the time

[xFezIsAFreakx]

Hmm.. well, whenever I leave my teens on their own to do what they like almost always the first thing they will do is their homework, then they will do something skill related which is quite convenient. Unless they start a new skill that I didn't particularly want them to start, causing me to have to restart my game. Hehe.

[Figwit]

You don't want them to have a skill?    I am such a slave-driver.  My sims hardly ever get any time for socialising as I am always making them skill.

[Sportsfan]

You don't want them to have a skill?    I am such a slave-driver.  My sims hardly ever get any time for socialising as I am always making them skill.

You wouldn't want them to have a skill if it's a dynasty. That could really hurt your dynasty.

[Seabody]

I agree.
Billy Bob has to sleep. He goes to nap on the bed.
Bobby Bill has to pee badly. He stands there for seven simminutes, then runs off to a toilet.
Billy Bobby needs to eat or he'll die. He runs to the fridge... after reading a book.
I have 8 precise interactions cued up for Phil. He does four of them, then runs into a ghost and drops everything.

But there are times, of course, when they are extremely productive - when they decide to skill instead of loiter around and read a pointless book (as in, not a skill book).