Multi-tasking makes me cuckoo!
I’ve lost something and have been trying to meditate to remember where I put it. It hasn’t been working, though, and I finally realized I am meditating while I am multitasking. Doh! That’s what happens when you have a lot on your mind.
It seems like the older I get the less productive multi tasking becomes. I used to successfully talk on the phone, nurse a baby, do dishes, and listen to 4 other children jabber. (Dare I even mention I might have also been watching a television program?) Now I find I can’t even do one thing at a time very well because my mind starts multitasking on its own which soon makes me very unproductive. In fact it often makes me sit in a chair in a stupor of thought. It makes me feel there are Mexican jumping beans doing tricks in an empty head with thoughts starting and jumping to another so quickly. Sometimes these jumbled thoughts lead me to start a task and and then quickly lead me to another one before the first is finished. It’s like thought and task suicide as they die out before they are finished.
I renewed a prescription the day before yesterday for my sinus infection. It came in a little cardboard folder. I came home and pressed out one little pill and set the cardboard folder in a safe place. I hate “SAFE PLACES”. They are safe from everybody but me! I should have put it where it belonged because I know that is the answer … but, gee, I thought I’d remember.
This isn’t isn’t a problem for Lynn because he has never put anything where it belongs in the 42 years we’ve been married and it has never bothered him when he can’t find something either. I think he enjoys looking for stuff. It’s like working a crossword puzzle or investigating a crime scene. He likes to find clues and follow them and seems to love the satisfaction when he succeeds no matter how long it takes. Not only do I not like to look for stuff, I hate to watch or hear anybody else look for stuff. I have had to make a rule that he can’t “shuffle” through things while I am trying to sleep or read because sometimes it makes me act out. It didn’t used to bother Lynn when I “acted out” but I have noticed that as he has aged he likes it less … which is actually a good thing because he tries to avoid it which is a win/win if you ask me.
This entire blog is a consequence of distraction and multi tasking. I needed some Tylenol for my sinus pain and when I went to the medicine cabinet I remembered I had not taken my prescription. I went into the living room where I thought I’d find it on a book shelf and it wasn’t there, but I found a little stack of unopened mail Lynn had brought in. I started opening the mail I remembered that this morning while Lynn was looking for something he’d found the valentines I’d bought for the grandchildren a few weeks ago. I thought “I better write them a letter and get them mailed”. I came to the computer, checked my emails and started making lists of things I need to do before we can leave on our big adventure, when I went to save it my computer froze up. About then, Lynn came home with a burrito and was able to fix my computer. He handed me my laptop, kissed me goodbye, and I settled into my chair and started writing this blog. That’s how it works.
Now I need to get back on task … what was I doing?
