The Joy of Mono-tasking

I’m confused by the catch phrase Multi-tasking…not because I don’t know what it means, but because I can’t imagine wanting to do more of it. Parents have been masters at multi-tasking for thousands of years. You probably are too. Think about pretty much any given moment of your day.

Be a force against the craziness. Go forth in search of the mono-tasking moment,
of a thought taken all the way to completion,
of a task that proceeds to its own natural God ordained end!

A child spills some juice so…what do you do?
You grab a towel off your shoulder to catch it–at the same time you quickly slide the school books out of the way…because…the juice is coming!

Now with both hands frantically engaged in a save-the-spelling books campaign, you also have to pause, just for a moment, to level the plate of creamed corn that the three year old is bringing to the table.
You also need to mention that
–the bath water is still running up stairs,
–the dog wants to be let in,
–the sought-after shoe that matches the one your child is wearing is in the vegetable crisper and that
–the missing gerbil just ran under the couch.

This is all happening pretty much simultaneously…all…day…long.

And in the midst of all of this, have you noticed something? No one stops by to visit saying, “Hey there, why don’t you step away from all this for awhile and go, oh, I don’t know…maybe read a delicious book that will keep you absorbed for hours.”

That visitor hasn’t dropped by yet.

If you’re like me, you don’t want more training in multi-tasking, thank you very much.
You want a break from it.  You want to MONO-task. Ah…feel the luxury.

Before I had kids I had this wonderful thought routine.

I started a thought.
I thought about it.
I finished the thought.

Wow. What a concept.  I even sometimes sat the thought on my back burner to simmer for a time while I thought of other things.

But now that I have kids, practically every thought I start is interrupted and I have to place it into a sort of holding pattern over my head, where it cycles around and waits for me to retrieve it to eventually give it its rightful completion.  There is a virtual jello salad hanging over me, with chunks of incomplete thoughts, just whirling and waiting.

I mean this next statement, though, very seriously. I didn’t realize the value of a completed thought until I wasn’t permitted any more of them.

This constant interruption to my thoughts? It’s not JUST inconvenient, it has actually changed me.  I am not the multi-tasking, plate spinning woman of wonder that I once was. For example, I no longer have a back burner.  Somewhere along the line, someone snuck in and removed my trusty four burner model and stuck me with a single burner only unit.  Truly, I can handle about one thought stream at a time.

Here’s how I know this:

I walk up to two women who are talking and I have a question.
I know that I have to pause before I interject my question.
That’s just common courtesy, right? I know that. But now I also know that when there is a pause in the conversation, I will no longer have a clue why I’m standing there.

So take a stand against multitasking. Don’t get caught up in the pressure to do multiple things at once with ever increasing speed and agility. Be a force against the craziness. Go forth in search of the monotasking moment, of a thought taken all the way to completion, of a task that proceeds to its own natural God ordained end! <cue Gone with the Wind music>

Where to start? I suggest a bubble bath.