Hardly! I can barely do one thing at a time.
That is partially true. I am better at being efficient and effective when I focus on that thing and get it done than when I try to do 2 or 3 things at once. But of course life doesn’t allow us the luxury of concentrating on that one thing and then moving on.
Work, managing a family, social life and blogging all require attention. But if I don’t work out what I need to do and get on with it, I am likely to try to do everything at once. Not literally perhaps, though I do often have several windows on my laptop open at once and of course there’s that important WhatsApp message to check. Next I remember I promised to call my mum and then there is the washing to take out of the machine. (Break here while I go and do it).
Planning
The secret to being productive is planning. I started the year with a fabulous planner and faithfully planned out whole months and then weeks of activity. For about half the year this worked well. I kept track of appointments (lots of them at hospitals), social events, birthdays and my blogging plans. But then life got busy, I took some paid work and things went wrong. I concentrated on the project (I did the planning) and got that done. I still managed to blog, but found it difficult to find the brain capacity for both. Next I went on holiday. Since then I’ve hardly planned anything other than in my head. Appointments are in the diary (often put there by Master), but blogging is more haphazard.
Multitasking in the way I have been doing lately is tiring. Keeping most plans in my head is crazy as I am not doing things in the right order. Plus I am forgetting important (though small) tasks.
Goal setting
When I finished work last year, I had all sorts of plans in mind. To have a prolonged break from the stress of the workplace. To travel and to write. I wanted to see if I could make money from writing. None of this stuff was written down, which is why I got the planner. But I hadn’t factored in the small issue of discovering I had breast cancer and requiring treatment and recovery from it.
Now though I am ready to set goals again and to plan the coming weeks and months. I have a new planner for 2020 and I am going to use it.
I’ve just listed to Molly and Kayla’s latest podcast about setting goals as well as other’s recently about planning and planners. So in theory I am ready. I have ideas I want to put in place, new exciting projects I want to embark on. This week I have found myself steaming ahead to do one of them, only to be stymied by internet problems. This led to multitasking in a way that is not efficient and fruitful as I tried to sort it out.
But while at a classical music event last night I worked out what I need to do (I find piano music particularly useful for this). Set goals and plan. Then do.
You see, as I said at the top, I can’t really multitask. I can barely do one thing at a time. So I will leave multitasking to those who can.
During the writing of this post I drank tea, put the washing into the tumble dryer, went in search of my laptop lead and checked a news story online. Plus chatted to Master who has just returned from the shop.
Like you, I seem to never get anything done properly when I do too many things at once, and as from 2020 I want to use my planner intensely, not only for my blog work, but also for my work. I need to find new ways to focus and find some of my fiction writing mojo back.
Rebel xox
PS: While I wrote this comment I got up to make tea, and answered a text message of my daughter…
Every time I make a plan, life intervenes. I feel like I’ve thrown a lot of my plans out the window this year and just scraped by. I’m looking forward to my own planning and goal setting AND I’m looking forward to what you do in 2020, too. XOXO
“During the writing of this post I drank tea, put the washing into the tumble dryer, went in search of my laptop lead and checked a news story online. Plus chatted to Master who has just returned from the shop. ”
Go you – sometimes we are multi tasking and don’t even break into a sweat lol
May xx
Yeah _ I am always doing a collection of things when I try to blog. Some posts take too bloody long to do as a result though x
When I was in full career mode, a planner of some sort was always close at hand … after retirement? … it’s amazing the number of things I CAN’T get done in a day which isn’t really the way it should be, right? or maybe it is. We have a ‘rule’ in our relationship, put in place by my always organized Sir. I have to have at least 3 items written on a to do list and placed by the coffee pot everyday or there is a ‘penalty’ to be paid … now that is a planner that works! ;>)) … nj … xx
Having brain capacity to do ‘everything’ is most definitely my problem!