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Multi-tasking and the Present??
Slowing down to speed up your productivity?
Sounds impossible…
Stop multi-tasking for just one week, one day, one hour?
Recently, I looked at how my life has become consumed with multi-tasking. One day I was responding to emails on my Blackberry while I was waiting in line at the post office. I thought, “I am the expert of productivity, not only am I shipping out orders for the week but look how caught up I will be when I get back to my office. With all the extra time I saved I can get on to my next project and the one after that and so on! And aren't these other people standing in line envious of me because I am getting things done while they stand here and tap their feet and sigh heavily because the line isn't moving?”
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The next morning I thought about it again. As I was drinking my first cup of coffee listening to the printer crunching out the online orders from overnight, I checked my schedule, added my to-do lists in between other things I had to do....again, checked my emails and looked over the progress of production for the week. All the while thinking, "How in the world will I get everything done?" The next sip of coffee was - COLD! The expert of productivity was drinking cold coffee? How long had my coffee been sitting there? I had been living my life in the future, never really staying present.
I had to ask myself, “How productive are you really? Are you only giving 10% of your attention to each task or for that matter to your life?”
The next morning, I changed things from the moment I woke up. Instead of jumping right out of bed the minute my eyes opened and heading for the coffee pot, I laid in bed and listened. Just listened. Birds. Lots of birds! Was that a wild turkey? Then I noticed what a gorgeous morning it was going to be. The sun was already pouring into my bedroom and was it only 5:30am? Was it always this pretty so early in the morning? I slowly made my way out of bed to the coffee pot, but instead of turning the computer on before I made it to the kitchen, I just kept walking. I made coffee. Just coffee. Nothing else. Once the coffee was finished, a truly amazing thing happened. I took my cup of coffee outside to the porch and sat. Just sat. Just sipped coffee. And you know what? The last sip was still hot! (I had given myself a precious gift. The gift of the present.)
It doesn't mean something supernatural had just taken place. Of course, the rest of my day was a normal workday, a blur of action, emails, text messages, phone calls, questions asked, errands run and tasks completed. But something was different, I was clear and focused. I didn't feel rushed. Everything on my list was checked, every appointment kept. My thoughts weren't racing into tomorrow's lists. Had one simple change made such a dramatic difference in my day? Over the next few weeks, I tried my practice whenever I could. Some days, I didn't think about lying in bed listening to birds, but I did leave the Blackberry in the car when I walked into the post office. And now, it has just become a habit.
Change doesn’t have to be huge to be meaningful. Finding one simple thing to change in your routine that will cause you to slow down for a moment and bring your attention back to “right now”. It’s not hard! But it is in your power to be “right now”.
Heather Rosencrantz is the owner of Dirty Girl Farm, producer of herbs, natural body care and a new line of green housekeeping products. See her at the Royal Oak Farmers Market year-round Saturdays 7-1. Contact her at: Heather@dirtygirlfarm.com |
