I don’t think I had trouble focusing when I was a child. From what I remember and from what my mom tells me, I was a fairly quiet kid, able to pay attention on whatever task was at hand—reading a book, coloring, cleaning my room or playing with dolls or with pets.
In school, I was able to maintain focus fairly well. I wasn’t the best student, but I was able to concentrate in class when I wanted to and I usually completed my homework.
When I joined the secretarial workforce, I prided myself on being pretty good at multitasking. I could answer questions on the phone while typing something on the typewriter, or eventually the computer keyboard. I could help someone at a reception desk while filing forms.
The most challenging job I ever had was as a receptionist in radiology at Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, Virginia, where we lived when Chuck was stationed with the Army at Fort Belvoir.
My duties at that job included answering a phone with six lines, making appointments and giving preparation instructions for everything from chest X-rays and mammograms to CTs and MRIs, checking out medical records, checking in patients and relaying X-ray orders from the nearby emergency room.
After working a 10- to 12-hour shift, I would be completely and utterly exhausted, but satisfied that I had managed to stay on top of things. I could focus on whatever needed to be done.
This no longer seems to be the case. Not only do I now seem to have a problem multitasking, I have a problem completing one thing before beginning another.
I can blame part of this problem on my job. Working to get a newspaper to print is not exactly a linear process. I start to write an article and need a comment from a subject, but he or she is not available. So I leave a message and move on to read an editorial submission. Then someone comes in to place a classified ad. Everyone else is busy so I pause to help. Then the phone rings and it’s a distraught person wanting to know if we received a loved one’s obituary. I check email and reassure them it has been received. Before signing off, I see an email response for an important story. As I review that information, the phone rings again—it’s the person I needed to talk to for the first story. And so it goes.
More than once I think, “Could I please just finish one thing today before starting another?”
I have noticed a similar pattern at home. I start to unload the dishwasher and for some reason remember that I have clothes to fold. As I carry a stack of towels to my bathroom, I notice some papers on my dresser that need to be filed. I leave the towels on my dresser. As I’m filing, I notice the checks that need to go in my wallet. I leave the filing to fill my checkbook before I forget. On the way I see my cell phone and remember I was supposed to phone a friend. I put the checks down and notice that a trashcan needs to be emptied. I take it to the door, but then remember that I haven’t paid the garbage bill. Before I forget again, I leave the trashcan and go to get my checkbook—which has no checks. Irritated, I head into the kitchen to see if I left the checks there. After I hit my shin on the door of the dishwasher, I think to myself, “I need to just finish one thing before I start another!”
So, that is my New Year’s resolution. I am going to try to be more purposeful. I am going to try to focus on one thing at a time. Right after I put those towels away…and refill my checkbook…and…
Who am I kidding? I hope you have better luck focusing on your New Year’s resolution!
Chaos is the score upon
which reality is written.
Henry Miller
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