So, what’s up with you guys? Are you caught up in holiday parties, or credit card bills that have skyrocketed, or any good gossip? Come on, help a girl out …
As you know, I’ve started a new contract. Usually, I work on a whole bunch of small contracts all at once and juggle them about. In other words, I’m used to multi-tasking like a mad woman, then sometimes looking at the clock at 3pm and wondering if there is anything in the cupboard worth munching on for lunch while taking a 5 minute break at the kitchen counter. Then I go back to doing this until my daughter gets off the bus. All the while wearing flannel pants of course (yes, Ken, you ARE missing out).
But now. Well, I’m on-site now. So you already know what happened to my flannel-pant-wearing days. But also, the network here does not allow me to check my regular email. It’s been a really twitchy few days for me … my hubby always says I’m addicted to my email and I never disagreed with him, I just didn’t realize how painful it was to be without it. I mean, even in Cuba, I managed to check on my email once a day.
Also, I’m not really part of a team. So, I basically have no interruptions all day. No phone, no email, no colleagues stopping by to chit chat. At first, this level of focus on a singular task kind of threw me off. (That combined with the twitchy-ness.) But now? Wow, after less than a week, I think I’ve really grown fond of life without multi-tasking.
The research says it’s far more productive not to multi-task. And of course, the research is likely right but it’s so rare to have the ability NOT to multi-task, isn’t it? How often do we get a chance to work while not scheduling children’s dentist appointments, mentally preparing a grocery list or figuring out what is an appropriate teacher’s gift? Well, I’m getting into it now. And it really is amazing how productive I’ve been as a result.
I’m not fully there though yet. So I took a wander over to some of my favourite blogs on my coffee break. This post from XUP actually had me almost spitting my coffee out onto the computer screen — in a combination of horror and laughter. It provides a handy-dandy list of topics to discuss over Christmas dinner. Here’s a sampler so you can see what I mean: “Go around the table and ask everyone if they had to have sex with a member of the family who it would be. Make note of those who don’t squirm or don’t have to think about their answer.”
So, that’s what’s up with me. Work, coffee, a good blog post from XUP. You? Do you have a method for dealing with the madness of multi-tasking? Or Christmas family dinner conversations for that matter?
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