I saw this thread title and laughed ("at least i'm not the only one who wonders this"), then I cried (Its so frustrating when chasing nature, IV, ball, HA AND gender).
+1 for TV, multitasking isn't too hard for me when breeding, just when i'm swapping parents out I always pause it and pay attention (I use excel to record the IV stats of the hatched pokemon AND also keep track of the IV of parents) so If i fill that in wrong, I'll lose my spot.
I did the majority of my breeding with a mix of 4 dittos, then I was given a 6IV which makes it somewhat easier. But often, now that I have 6IV parents in most categories, I will often consider using them where egg moves come in to play.
Also, IRC has kept me sane during the breeding run's.
It isn't all that bad took me about 400 eggs for a shiny gastly, however last week I randomly hatched a shiny 5IV Sand Veil gible after about 40 eggs so that was a nice surprise!