I’ve ceased multi-taksing. Perhaps not completely, but gone are the days when I would divide, OK fracture, my attention to accomplish two or three things at once. Lately I’ve become aware that doing, or trying to do, more than one thing at a time takes me out of myself. Out of the present and onto a path paved with distraction and a wee bit of anxiety.
Maybe it’s age slowing me down. Or maybe I’ve realized that everything does not have to be done-at-once; much can wait until the next hour or even the next day. If G’d forbid the next day doesn’t come, well then, someone else can fold the laundry.
Earlier in the fall a friend called just as I began my winding-down-the-garden chores. We’d been playing phone tag; I didn’t want to send her to voicemail. So AirPods situated, iPhone in my pocket, the rake in my hands, I answered her call while I tackled the leaves. It was great to catch up and hear of her grandchildren’s latest escapades. After we rang off, I realized that I hadn’t noticed the crisp fall air or reveled in that particular shade of intense indigo sky that graces us only in October. Had the sun been warming my back as I raked leaves toward the curb? Not a clue.
One of my fave Yiddish expressions is Mit ein hintn zitst men nit oif tsve ferd. You can’t ride two horses with one behind. For milennia philosophers have urged upon us this eternal truth. You can’t be in two places at once unless you’re a quark. I think. So for now, and this now, and this now, I strive to remain in the present, uni-tasking. One behind is enough for me.
greeting card image courtesy of Debra and Martin Darvick
image of Ethel and Lucy courtesy of Getty Images
Bad habits are hard to break, but old age will do it naturally.
Oy Ilene! How true. How true!
Working on this. When accomplished, it’s a great feeling of grace, wonder, and fullness!
Indeed. Although true confession: A couple of days ago I was leaving to go to a doctor appointment.
I was carrying what memo would call a “lazy man’s bundle” ie too much for just two hands. I put a book
and an envelope with cash on the top of my car.Got everything in the car, tossed the book in the back and
make it to appointment on time. Headed to bank and…no envelope with the cash. I raced home hoping against
hope it was in the kitchen. No. Then searched the garage. No. Drove down the driveway and began retracing
my route.The angels were smiling upon me that morning. There was the envelope in the middle of the street,
face down, with a couple of tire tracks but no worse for the wear. I wish I couldn’t say the same for my
nerves. I was very lucky.My byword for 2025: UNI-TASKING!
I have this discussion a lot with Linda Waddell. My reason for multitasking relates to an old age joke: One old guy asks another old guy, “Do you believe in the hereafter?” The second old guy responds, “Sure! I go from this room to that room and wonder, ‘what did I come here after?'” I may start one task, but realize I need something located somewhere else in the house, so go there and see something that “will just take a few seconds,” so I start that, but then get distracted and . . . well, you know how that goes . . . .
Oh, my gosh Anita. Do I ever! There are days where I have to retrace my steps to get back to where I was when I had the thought
that brought me into another room. And this is how we get our 10,000 steps!