Fall is a busy time in our house. After the dog days of summer, starting school and going back to all the sports can be a big adjustment. For families that didn’t go back to school this year and are instead choosing virtual learning, the adjustment can feel even bigger.
I used to consider myself an organized person. After all, I have my own home office, a varied collection of multi-size and multi-colored sticky notes, and I even use an electronic calendar that syncs across all my devices. Don’t I sound like a person who SHOULD have it all together?
Confession: I often drop the ball. (Whoopsie!)
A couple of weeks ago, I signed up to drive half the cheer squad to last week’s football game and then ended up arriving fifteen minutes late because while the time—4:45—was firmly planted in my head, I “got busy” and told myself that was the time I needed to leave my house, not the time I was supposed to pick up the girls. Then, last Saturday, I sent my husband to Duluth for a cheer competition that was actually scheduled for Dalton—a city located about two hours away!
Thank goodness they did not ask me to drive the squad to that one.
So flaky, right?
Research shows that most people don’t care whether they are flaky or not. Promising to do something without following through is no big deal. Worse, more than half the people surveyed said they often accept invitations for things they have no intention of attending at all.
The truth is humans were not designed to multi-task. When we have multiple tabs in our brain open at once, it only makes sense that something is bound to get ignored. Supposedly, only 2% of the population is actually proficient at multi-tasking.
If that’s you, then I could use some pointers.
Did you know that shifting between tasks can cost up to 40% of your productive time? That’s a lot! In fact, some productivity experts say if you devoted just 90 minutes of focused time per day towards your most important tasks, you could get so much done that you’d probably be able to spend the rest of the day doing whatever you want.
Case in Point
Just yesterday, I was out on our back porch enjoying the beautiful fall weather and doing some research when Gavin said he was going to the gym. A little while later, he opened the door, and I said, “Oh, you haven’t left yet?”
He had already gone and come back! The hour and a half I spent working felt like five minutes.
Proof that focused work is productive work.
This season of uncertainty brings many challenges, and the temptation to be distracted might be one of the biggest. On the one hand, I want to be a person who emerges from this period of history with a track record of accomplishments. And on the other hand, I too, need relief—from the onslaught of political banter, the weariness of navigating ever-changing COVID-19 protocol, and the disappointment of all the fun things that have been canceled.
But here’s what I’m trying to do: I’m trying to give myself some grace, and more importantly offer it to others because surely I’m not the only one who feels like I’m losing it. One of the best parts of the pandemic—and this has been a surprise to me—is that the people in my circle are all a little more empathetic. It would be easy to be selfish in a season like this. Anger comes naturally and sometimes without provocation. But let’s be honest—we are all struggling.
The day I screwed up the location of the cheer competition, my husband didn’t yell at me because he had to spend a few extra hours in the car. My daughter didn’t cry her eyes out because we missed her routine. Instead, our community stepped in. Someone recorded the event and sent it to me. I received lots of pictures from other moms that day. And Gavin arrived just in time to see the awards ceremony and drive Cari Jill home.
We laughed about the whole thing.
And then we moved on.
Even with all the tools available to me, I know I’m not very good at managing everything. But the one small thing I can (and should be able to) do is focus for ninety minutes a day.
If I had spent just one of these blocks organizing my calendar, I could have saved myself a lot of heartache and guilt these last couple of weeks.
Can you allocate just 10% of your waking hours to accomplishing one important thing?
Share it with me in the comments below. I’d love to know how you’re slaying the day and making time work for you.
Want more good stuff?
For more encouragement, read Tiffany Dufu’s book aptly titled Drop the Ball. You can get it here.