When did multi-tasking become so natural that we don’t notice we’re doing it anymore? I was on-line a few days ago for a couple hours, and I could feel my heart starting to beat faster as I was simultaneously responding to emails, purchasing train tickets and posting pictures on my picture blog. After three weeks of glorious single-tasking (entire days spent sitting on the ground and scratching the dirt with a trowel, anyone?), I realized how much of my normal life is NOT spent this way. It’s astounding how easily I fell into multi-tasking and how I could immediately feel and recognize the adverse affects it had on my mind and body.
I’ve always taken great pride in being an effective multi-tasker, but now I’m thinking that this might be part of the reason why I feel like the wheels in my head are always spinning. Often, especially in DC, I get paralyzed by all of the possibilities of what I could/should be doing that my thoughts alone stress me out and I don’t end up doing anything, causing me to put things off until I’ve created a major mental traffic jam.
I once read that when people fantasize about a calmer and more serene life, it’s generally in the context of opening up a B&B in the country or something like that. However, it’s not so much that operating a B&B is attractive in and of itself, but rather we yearn for the luxury of living a slower-paced life and focusing on one task at a time. I, for one, am ready to renounce multi-tasking in exchange for a saner mind. Even if this means getting less done. Will try it out and see how it goes.
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