This year I resolve to multitask less! I no longer think of the ability to multitask as a benefit. I am sure it is partly why I find it difficult to focus for long periods of time. Part of it is my personality, part of it comes from 21 years of motherhood, and a whole lot of it is the demands of my job.  However, I would like to regain (or develop?) the skill of FOCUS.

I have read several articles on multitasking and its negative effects. It is not all it is cracked up to be.  We are a nation of distractedness.  Constantly switching from activity to activity often results in doing none of them well.  Here’s a link to read more, if interested:  http://mixergy.com/course-cheat-sheet-no-multitasking/

Can you imagine having a conversation with someone and not being interrupted by buzzing/singing/twirping phones?  Can you imagine talking with someone while they look at you … not while they/you tappity onto a miniaturized keyboard?

What if I returned home from a day of multitasking at work and focused on making supper?  No laundry. No opening and sorting the mail. No cranking of the neck to talk on the phone while opening cans. No walking on the treadmill (seriously…I have tried this with little success).  No putting something on the stove-top and then dashing outside to “quickly” start the chores.  I always get engrossed in extra tasks when I’m outside resulting in several stovetop failures.  For years my kids thought that pancakes and grilled cheese were supposed to have one burned side.  Talking with my family, if they are in the kitchen, would be okay … unless I’m following a recipe and measuring ingredients …. However, I should not be expected to search for their misplaced items, order something from Amazon, check calendars, gather and distribute money while they talk/text/etc.  My whole family would have to adjust to my focus-training.  The benefit might be that they would no longer have to say, “I told you that …”

Think of the other benefits!  Really, there are endless possibilities.  Savoring a cup of coffee.  Tasks completed instead of in some state of not-quite-finished.  Now-where-was-I?  Not having to rewind movies.  Not going to the utility room and finding laundry mildewing in the washer or wrinkling in the dryer.  No more burned cookies and boiled-over pots.  No more forgotten items in the microwave.  Imagine enjoying mozzarella sticks removed from the oven at just the right moment … instead of after they have erupted from their breaded-coating and ooozed into a big puddle?

Maybe less problems with acid reflux??  Maybe less stress??  Okay, I might be dreaming now.  Even so, it’s my dream and one that I believe is worth pursuing!