The Power of Uni-tasking

I have trudged through days where I felt like I was busy as could be, but at the end of the day there were no finished tasks to point to and say, "Look what I've accomplished." Flitting around from one thing to another, I couldn't seem to complete anything.

So I had to resort to drastic measures. I've started to turn off my computer during the day. Now I only allow myself to get online a few times a day. So maybe I haven't severed this digital umbilical cord to the world, but I have limited my reliance on it with profound results. Suddenly, I can concentrate and plow through a single task. Even those tasks that are too big to ever seem to complete (like pulling that rampant, weedy periwinkle from the yard) are being tackled in greater blocks.

I suspect that I'm not the only person addicted to email. I have checked it religiously for years now, probably hundreds of times a day. After checking my inbox, I then surf my favorite news sites or browse sites that offer information on something I'm researching. If I added up all the scraps of minutes spent on email and random website surfing, I would have a sizeable chunk of my day returned to me. That's why I've decided to become a uni-tasker, a task that could only be achieved once I shut off my Mac. The interesting side effect of this effort is a change in my mental state as I go to work. I feel more emotionally and mentally present in my tasks when I'm only doing one thing. It's very zen, really. Thich Nhat Hanh would be proud of me. And it's most obvious when I'm doing activities with the children. I spend time with the children and give them my full attention. I'm not trying to cook dinner, answer emails, talk on the phone, clean up, or do anything else. The result is that we have a lot more fun together. That's not to say that the kids are never playing by themselves - because I think it's very important for them to have alone play, and that's when I cook dinner or clean up or do laundry.

By focusing on one thing at a time, I feel a much greater sense of accomplishment when I complete something. I have also found my mind wandering through the language of my actions, playing with words when I'm engaged in more meditative acts, like chopping vegetables or weeding. Phrases that evoke the spirit of my acts, delicious words like the sticky smell of overripe fruit, or the light pink flesh of roots rip from the rocky dirt, just pop into my head, delighting my writer-side. It's almost like I've rediscovered the poetry of the everyday. Who knew that uni-tasking could improve my quality of life so much?