I must stop multitasking. I've spent all of 2009 so far in a frenzied blur of good intentions and half finished projects, darting from one thing to the next like a spastic chameleon who can't decide what color she wants to be on any given day (or any given five minutes, for that matter).
Think I'm exaggerating? In the past ten minutes, I went from reading an Anna Quindlen article about how to write both fiction and non-fiction (an article I clearly need to read, given than today I haven't written much of either) to suddenly remembering that my hair needs gel so it doesn't frizz up, to pouring cold water on the eggs I just boiled, to thinking, "I have to focus...but first, this might make a good blog post..." And so goes my day.
I think things got truly out of hand when we put the condo on the market. There's ALWAYS something when you're in the middle of that--every mark has to be scoured off the counter now, every shed bit of fur from THAT DOG swept immediately. Not to mention the mind games of what your possessions might say to people who come through ("Omigosh I have to hide that copy of The Purpose Driven Life or people will think my life has no purpose!") (And yes, I'm aware that there's some potent metaphor in there about our hidden lives and how we all need to pursue inner and outer synchronicity, blah blah blah, but I'll save that for another day). But even now that we have a great buyer (who may or may not care in any way about my book collection or what drives me) I can't seem to shake the frantic distractedness.
Help! How do you NOT multitask? How do you complete one thing (reading an article, making lunch) without getting distracted and sucked into twelve others?
7 comments:
Step-by-step. It's a straight path to getting every thing you want done along the way. And, if that doesn't work for you, how about trying blinders? ;)
I can't multi-task well. I'm just not that complicated or talented of a creature, I guess.
Maybe unitask in small doses? Cut out distractions while doing a specific task for 15 minutes to start? I don't know :)
Trish, if you find anything that works well for you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let us know because I am the world's most hopeless unitasker. It's to the point that I'll do things like put a load of clothes in the washing machine, pour in the detergent, then remember that I have something on the stove... standing by the stove reminds me that I need to finish putting the groceries away... Oh, and then I need to help a child with homework... An hour later I'll remember to close the lid on the washing machine and press 'start.' As my husband said to me, as gently as he could, "That doesn't seem like a very efficient way to do things." SIGH.
I have learned to say no to some things that aren't going to get me any closer to the goals I have set for myself that day. Some things are unavoidable, I know, but for those things I have learned to place things in a list in my head. What is most important RIGHT NOW? What can wait? And what is just making me crazy because I am obsessive compulsive. Most of all I just ask God to help me stay focused on those things that matter for each day.
I'm pretty sure it's not possible. Wait...what was the question? I was talking on the phone and eating while I read ... ;)
I'm just the same, but I rarely fight it. It seems to work okay for me. It is very frazzling though--on occasion I just have to tell myself to STOP! and focus on just one thing.
(Love the paperback cover, BTW!)
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