The Road to Unitasking

I am not a unitasker but I am finding that this may be the wave of my future. The jumping around of multitasking too many items has left me performing average to sub-par.

I am not satisfied with average and shudder at the thought of being sub-par. Despite all the good and all the bad I am a Laid Back Type A person. This is my own personal blend of Type A and Type B personality. I am often driven by deadlines and multi-task rushing from place to place – Type A – but I am also relaxed, easy-going when items are communicated and lack a sense urgency until the deadline approaches – Type B.

There is no doubt in my mind that I will never really become a unitasker. The difficulty of focusing on only one item at a time for long periods is not an area I am strong enough to concur at this time. The breaking of the snooze habit is item one on my list right now, which I had been doing well until Monday and Tuesday of this week.

I recently read that meditation helps with focus, i.e. becoming a competent unitasker. Yoga is a good friend of mine. I try to recruit a new yogi just about as often as I try to push Twilight onto those who have not yet open the book binding. The idea of meditation makes me revert to my teenage years of the eye roll. My mental discipline is too weak for meditation. I may consider meditation after I make it through multiple yoga sessions staying in the moment and not allowing my mind to run through all my to do’s.

For the time being, I may consider myself a recovering multitasker and take great pleasure if I keep it to three or four items at a time. All other items go to my list (this where Big Poppy rolls his eyes because he loves the list I in an effort to stay on task). I will continue to review my list daily and delegate (this is where staff roll their eyes because of the items they inherit when I delegate).

Where has this new respect for the unitaskers of the world come from? Little Guy.

He starts daycare in a few weeks. To be my very best for him I need to perform better. Lately, I have made careless mistakes because when I start one project, instead of writing down a thought that needs to be followed up on, I just change direction and complete the new thought. I have been making more mistakes than I care to admit to lately. In my mind, I have been letting down the people in my life whether with family, with friends, co-workers or my community.

My pride in my ability to juggle several items morphed into arrogance. This arrogance escalated the amount of items I tried to complete at once. Instead of efficiency, I created more work for others and myself.

The technical difficulties appear to be Happy Mom difficulties. Here are few examples:

1. Internet Connection – Little Guy’s video monitor interferes with our internet connection when it is on at night. I knew this would likely happen when he moved into his own room. I forgot and wasted countless hours trying to determine why the internet was not working. Silly, I know, but still it was an item I researched before deciding on a video monitor. There are a few ways to work around it but instead of following up on the work around I spent excessive time running up to the second floor and then down to the basement to “fix” the internet.
2. Thank You’s – In an effort to save time and have the ability to write thank you notes while waiting, I pre-addressed envelopes and stuck the cards in a little brown bag. I carried the brown bag in my car for weeks. I pulled the brown bag out of my car last night while cleaning up the trash. What did I find? Countless BLANK thank you notes.
3. Little Guy Announcements – Big Poppy and I needed a new computer long before we purchased our current computer last year. Because our old computer was so old and slow and not fit for use, we would often use our work computers for personal reasons. During the file transfer after the purchase of our red (did you know I adore the color red) laptop I did not take into consideration the work computer usage. Several announcements were returned to sender due to an address change from YEARS ago.

Now you know why I have not posted.

This is what you have missed.

A little cutie smiling at his mommy and daddy. I so enjoy stealing kisses from Little Guy’s cheeks.

He is getting very strong and stands tall.

Little Guy is also becoming independent. Just yesterday, he was visibly upset and let me know that I was not to hold his bottle.

Big Poppy has just returned home. The three-month pictures are in….