Hello, awesome readers!
This is another post from the Shared Thoughts category. I started this series as a way to introduce contributors, and because getting a glimpse into other people’s minds and lives is interesting. It’s why we communicate. It’s why we ask questions. It’s why a bottle of wine is perfectly sized for more than one person.
While this site continues to be a personal blog, you can imagine this series of posts as a new ingredient. Sometimes you make traditional oatmeal cookies and sometimes you add chocolate chips to the recipe.
While preparing for this post, I learned that people have a lot to say on the topic of multi-tasking vs. wearing many hats. For this reason, this post is a three-part series and begins with Kim Christin sharing her thoughts on the subject.
I met Kim at Linda Sivertsen’s writer’s retreat in Carmel, California a few years ago. During our five days together, I picked Kim out as one of those humans that I want to know forever. Kim is a thinker. When she speaks, she has something to say. I remember listening to her sweet voice and thinking, “Yup. I like this one.” Lucky for me, we continue to be friends regardless of distance.
What I love about Kim’s thoughtful thoughts on multi-tasking vs. wearing the many hats of our existence is that she reminds us that focusing on one task at a time is the path to actually getting stuff done, which leads to a sense of accomplishment and peace of mind.
And so, without further ado, I give you Kim’s perspective on multi-tasking vs. wearing many hats. (Can you hear the drum roll?)
Each of us fills many roles throughout the lives we are living and creating. Those may include being a child, a significant other, a parent, an employee, or a contractor. We wear a different hat when we take on each role, and with each of them come obligations; we need to complete to cross the finish line.
Society loves to tell us that we can multi-task ourselves to the place we classify as ‘success.’ I was once a believer in this mindset, and for decades I created a life of exhaustion and fatigue.
I have found very few items that can be productively multi-tasked. Each of us must be clear on what items can be done together and what cannot. When an item crosses over into multi-tasking, that shouldn’t; it depletes the precious energy that you and I need to create our best life.
All prosperous multi-tasking items in my life are ones that involve technology: for example, laundry, doing dishes with the dishwasher, slow cooking, listening to an audiobook, podcast, or music, an automated vacuum (such as Roomba) and downloading software. Technology completes all of these, allowing you and me to do other things.
I love technology, and I am truly grateful to live in this wonderful period of time. However, we must be mindful that we are consciously choosing how it can assist our busy world and not allowing it to pull us away from what we came here to do.
We need to be clear about what can be multi-tasked and what cannot; this is key. All the other items on the To-Do-List need our full attention. By choosing one item to devote our intention to, we can bring that one item to completion. It is here that we can choose to be fully present, living in the now, and bring the best version of ourselves to the life we came to create and experience.
Each day, we can choose one priority that needs to be completed by the time we lay our head to rest. This will bring satisfaction, as we begin to see movement in a forward direction. If the one item is too big, then break it down into smaller pieces. If the one task is completed, we move on to another, or put on a different hat and work on something for another role.
It is essential to concentrate only on the priority item that we have chosen until it is complete. This will bring peace of mind as we fall asleep each night.
I often create poetry or short sayings as daily reminders of how I want to live my life. This is a poem that I created to remind me each day that only one breath and one step can be taken at a time.
A task at hand, I focus upon.
One breath, one step,
I coax the process along…
Until the task is gone.
Kim Christin
Author of Be Thy Light- Daily Intentions for Mindful Living
and creator of 365 Intentions to Inspire App
Thoughtful thoughts indeed! Thank you Kim, for taking the time to share.
Awesome readers, I invite you to come back next week for post #2 of this series.
Until then, stay true to yourself.
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