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Multi-Tasking Through Life |
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by Carmie Boutin
In fact, I do several things at once. I’m a master multi-tasker. I’m on the phone and on the computer. I’m reading the paper and figuring out my bills. But, I’m not really multi-tasking (a term we boomers appropriated from computers, the only true multi-taskers). I just think I am. The truth is, my 40-something mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time. If I’m reading the paper while calculating the Visa bill, I have to go back and re-read what I thought I’d read the first time. If I’m doing computer work while on the phone with a friend, I’m not really listening. One friend knows enough to say “Focus,” to remind me I’m not giving her my undivided attention. Another says, “I can hear you typing.” Oops OK, OK, I’m listening. Whatever I do, I do quickly. I need to get onto that next task. I was the same way in school. I’d do an assignment the day it was given. If I had to do a research paper something that I couldn’t knock off in an hour or two I’d get a huge knot in my stomach until the paper was completed. Long-term assignments went against my nature to get it done.
And if I can’t get it done, I don’t do it. I’ve taken piano lessons on and off since I was nine. Playing piano doesn’t come easy to me. So I can’t get it done. I get frustrated and quit every time. God forbid I have time to sit and do nothing. What would happen? What demons would enter my mind? Busy people are happy people. Why? Because they don’t have time to think about their problems. The real problem is that they don’t have time to think about anything. This revelation came to me while hanging around with my husband on Saturday mornings. Saturday morning is the time my carpenter husband dedicates to looking at jobs. I used to use this time to do housework and laundry. A few months ago, we decided we needed more quality time (another boomerism we think we invented) with each other, so now we go looking at jobs together. Actually my husband looks at the jobs, and I stay in the car. When we first started this routine, I spent my “car time” worrying about when I would get the housework and laundry done. Then I started to bring things along to amuse myself a book, my cell phone, a pad and pen. As the weeks went by, I began to look forward to my car time. I’d catch up on my reading, call friends I hadn’t talked to in ages, come up with story ideas. I never knew what I was missing.I thought this time-to-yourself thing was vastly overrated. What is overrated is getting it all done. It’s only when I had time completely to myself no computer, no TV, no distractions -- that thoughts came to me that I never knew I had. This newfound time to myself taught me how to slow down and take pleasure in the moment. I now try to enjoy creating those stitches, learning that piano piece no matter how slowly. It’s still a struggle, but I am trying.
Writer Carmie Boutin can be emailed at: cboutin@mediaone.net
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My
husband says I have clean desk syndrome. I’m not happy if I have
any piles of unfinished work on my desk, any calls not returned,
any email unanswered. I have to get it done. Why? So I can do
more. 
Get
it done. Get it done. Even so-called fun activities became items
on my to-do list: knit, play piano, walk dog, ride bike. I took
up knitting to relax. Before long, I found myself rushing to complete
one row, just to start another row that I could rush to complete.
The joy of knitting each stitch was lost on me. 
The
quality time thing is working out pretty well too. My husband
uses this time to discuss stuff that we never seem to talk about
at home. Stuff you only discuss when you have your spouse hostage
in a moving automobile. Just the other week, he informed me that
he wants us to take up snowmobiling this winter. Snowmobiling?
At my age?? By the time my eyes were back in their sockets, he
was out of the car and knocking on the next customer’s door.