A 1000 Different Directions

Have you ever found yourself running in a thousand different directions? You have family and work and church and hobbies and friends and so on. It may be that you have several projects to work on or several books you want to read. How do you find time to do it all?

Common wisdom today would suggest multitasking. Take three or four books and begin to read them. Or take three or four projects and begin hammering out the work. However, I fear that multitasking doesn't really work. Except for the rare individual that can actually focus on multiple projects at once most people's work suffers from divided attention. Take for instance that woman who cut you off this morning because she was curling her hair, putting on her make-up, and talking on her cell phone while steering the car with her knees. Or the guy who held up traffic because he was typing his report on his laptop while he read his paper and drank his coffee cruising down the highway at 45 mph. Or the student who can't read his homework without listening to music and watching t.v., but who can't remember what the chapter was about.

The key is organization. We all have to multitask a bit. None of us can be solely focused on just one thing, unless we only have one responsibility. A person with a family, a job, a hobby, and a pet is going to be pulled in more than one direction. The key is coming up with a plan for organization and implementation. When you have multiple responsibilities, there are a few options you can take. First, you can neglect some of your responsibilities and focus all of your attention in one area (for example, a workaholic who is never at home). Second, you could cut back on some of your responsibilities (for example, a person who gives their pet away because they don't have time to care for them). Finally, you can combine the best of working hard with working smart. You can come up with a plan that allows you to have your cake and eat it too.

Getting life organized might mean we cut back on some of our responsibilities (like passing on a promotion to have more time with your family), but it also means having a plan of attack that allows us to whittle away that the "to-do" list of our daily existence. We need to look at the day coming up and map out a strategy. What is most urgent? If we have something big to do, can it be broken down into smaller, more easily managed chunks? Do we have an action plan, that will help us complete the task before our deadline? If your goal is something smaller, like reading a book, can you find thirty minutes a day to dedicate to the task (please not while your driving)?

I'm not an expert on organization. However, on the days that I have a plan more seems to get accomplished. Whether you have a stack a books that you want to read or a building to construct, you need a plan of action. You have to realistically determine the amount of time it will take to accomplish the task and the amount of time you have to give to the task. Then break it down into smaller bite size chunks. Instead of wondering how you are going to read a 500 page book focus on getting through a section or chapter. Then move on to the next section or chapter, and before long you will find the book is finished.

It comes down to this: What are your priorities? What do you wish to accomplish? What needs to be done? and What are the steps to accomplish it? When you are home playing with the kids (or grandkids) focus on that. When you are at work or church use the dedicated time to focus on the projects with which you are faced. Just focus on one thing at a time, and eventually most of the important stuff will get done.