〜ながら: two actions by the same person
Listing activities is different from doing them simultaneously. Check who performs each action around ながら and whether the actions overlap.
Adding ながら to the verb stem
音楽を聞きながら料理を作ります。 means making food while listening to music. Remove ます from 聞きます and add ながら. Do not form it as 聞くながら or 聞いてながら.
この写真を見ながら話しましょう。 proposes talking while looking at this photograph. Form 見ながら from 見ます. The later verb determines how the whole sentence ends, such as a past statement or a suggestion.
Checking the shared subject and main action
In the basic simultaneous-action use of ながら, both actions have the same subject. Check that the listener and the cook are the same person. The later clause usually presents the main action, with the earlier clause as the accompanying one.
Do not force this ながら pattern onto a situation in which your brother cooks while you read. For different subjects, make the relationship explicit, as in 兄が料理をしている間、私は本を読みました: I read while my brother was cooking.
Comparing simultaneity, lists, and sequence
歩きながら話しました。 says that someone talked while walking. 歩いてから話しました。 says they talked after walking. The difference is whether the actions overlap or the second follows the first.
読んだり書いたりしました。 lists reading and writing as examples of activities, without guaranteeing they were simultaneous. Before choosing ながら, てから, or たり, describe the activities' actual time relationship.
Check: How are listening and cooking related in 音楽を聞きながら料理を作りました?
Show the answer and why
In the basic reading, the same person listened to music while cooking, so the actions overlapped. It does not say that they finished listening and then cooked.