Multi-tasking
Multi-tasking -- that is one of the buzz words of our time. Can you simultaneously walk and talk? Then you are multi-tasking. Watch television, file your nails, and drink a cup of tea? Multi-tasking. Run the dishwasher, heat a muffin in the microwave, play a CD, and brew a pot of coffee. Now you're really multi-tasking.
Everyone multi-tasks. Even me -- except I do it one task at a time.
Take today, for instance. I turned on the computer to find a raft of emails in my in-box. I knew I had to deal with them, but first I had to do my daily jigsaw. There is no way I can think about working until I get that puzzle out of the way. My husband delivered my coffee, so I didn't even have to worry about that.
"Aha!" I hear you saying. "You drank coffee and jigsawed simultaneously! That's multi-tasking."
Indeed it is. The thing is the coffee sat there until I finished the puzzle. Then I drank it luke warm.
Now onto my emails. But wait! The car is due in for a check-up at the service station at 8:30. Well, I certainly can't work on my emails while I'm driving.
Nine a.m. finds me back at the computer, dealing with my inbox. So I mentally group the epistles. The spam is easy -- it's outta here. Writing association emails are the first legit items on my agenda. Next I deal with Friends of the Library. River Writers is after that, and finally I look at the comments from the editor of one of my upcoming books. I reply to let him know I've received his missive, and then I park his comments at the side of my brain. I can't concentrate on them right now, because I have to get to work on Chapter 9 of Zach & Zoe 2 -- and I cannot think about one book while I'm working on another. Actually, I dare even the most accomplished of multi-taskers to do that.
But pushing the editor's email from my mind is easier said than done, and I find myself unable to write. So I play some computer Mahjong, Backgammon, and Yahtzee to relax me, and before I know it, it's lunchtime.
I am pleased to report that I was actually able to multi-task at this point. I talked with my husband through the entire cooking and eating of our meal.
Then it was off to the computer again. Hold on -- I'll be right back. I have to fold the laundry in the dryer. I cannot type and fold at the same time.
Okay, I'm back. After lunch, I was sufficiently able to forget about the one book so that I could work on the other one, and I'm happy to report that I have accomplished a fair bit. But I need a break, so that's where this silly blog came from.
What I'll do next is a surprise to even me. Whatever it is, it will definitely be an it, and not a they, because for me, multi-tasking means accomplishing many things in one day -- just not at the same time.