Monotasking

This picture pretty much sums up my experience.

It's the last day of January. I'm not in school so I'm not as busy as I once was, but I still found a way to seriously stress myself out. Not in a I-have-so-much-to-do way, but in a there-are-so-many-things-I-should-be-doing kind of way. I set all these awesome goals to do so many great things, and when I did, I just froze.

Take a night a couple weeks ago, for example. I came home from work and, after the usual tasks of making dinner and such, found myself with a couple hours to do as I pleased. Naturally, I sat down with a new book ("17 this year!" I'd written down on New Year's). But as I did so, I started feeling restless. I really wanted to get started on a quilt ("2 quilts and a table runner!" was written on the same sheet somewhere below the books goal). So I got that out and started cutting. And then — you guessed it. I felt like I should be using my time to read.

That's when I thought of the idea of monotasking. I'd read about it somewhere and it seemed like a good idea. I had become such a multitasker in school that I had somehow convinced myself that that was the best way to get things done, but it was making me crazy.

So for the last couple weeks I've decided to focus on one thing at a time. Just one. I'll even dedicate a whole night to that one thing. The next day (or next week?), I'll choose something else. And tonight, as I sealed up some letters I've been meaning to send for 2 1/2 years (yikes...), I felt so accomplished.

And I'd only done one thing.

So there's my little secret. Take one bite at a time, and make sure to chew and swallow before taking another bite. Life is so much easier to swallow that way.