Tag: time and energy budgeting
It’s All in the Transition

It’s All in the Transition

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I listen to heart monitor alarms all day long at work.  My mind must be constantly alert and listening subconsciously for these (which can be life-saving) along with patient call bells, patient screams, code blue announcements, my work cell phone, my personal cell phone, the unit landline, and whatever else is going on.

By the time I get home my ears and brain are fried, but a new set of noises starts. The exhaust fan is on over the stove. The TV or computer might be blaring. I am immediately bombarded by the insistent requests of my family who has been awaiting my return, with homework and dinner and school papers and wanting to talk about their days. I am excited to see them too, but I am overwhelmed by the sounds and busyness.  My mind is still in fight or flight mode, but needs to be in nest and rest mode.  I want transition time.

Usually I get off work late, sometimes after 8pm, and I want to make every moment count before we put the kids to bed and eventually collapse.  But it’s just not that easy.  I feel the need to first wash the aura of other people’s feces and disease off my body.  I want to reset my brain to stop being hyper alert. In the meantime I only have one foot in the door and the rest of me is distracted and crabby.

I have started taking 15 minutes to shower and decompress in silence every evening before trying to focus on my kids—and it does wonders. Everyone in my house now knows to let me do this.  I go straight upstairs to rinse the workday away before they tug on my shirt and ask me to look at something or do something. Until I shift gears from work to home I can’t really be myself and relax.

I also have a hard time with the following transitions:

  1. Waking up…to doing something productive in the morning on my days off
  2. Getting out of the house…to exercise in a timely manner
  3. Being busy…to slowing down and going to sleep
  4. Focusing on my kids…to taking time for my romantic relationship

Transitions are important but don’t get enough attention. People don’t usually budget time for crossing the delta between activities that require different brain cells and a change in skill set. Taking a moment to properly reset can lower stress and increase productivity. It allows for less distraction and more intensity in the now.

Planning for transitions can also set limits on mindlessness.  (Such as 2 hr Facebook/gaming/YouTube time sucks!)  Repeated, lengthy devotion to mind-numbing activities is attractive when we feel overloaded by real life and need to escape it. If we respect transition time and use it wisely we can reduce the need to mentally check out as a coping mechanism.

The best way to get from one activity to another is to first acknowledge that a shift is needed, and then decide what is important for you to be successful in the next phase.

Transitions can include:

  • A quiet, still moment to reset
  • Time to get ideas or to-dos written or typed for later
  • Planning for the next day
  • A physical move from one location to the next
  • A change in uniform
  • Optimizing your environment
    • Staging or lining up your tools
    • Cleaning up
  • Setting the tone with music or lighting
  • A change in audience and attitude
  • A signal to focus on the next thing (such as an alarm or timer)
  • An internal pep talk to get yourself psyched
  • Anything that clears your mind and gives you peace

Transitioning can mean calming down. It can also mean gearing up, getting focused, planning, or stopping in a good spot.  It requires mindfulness and awareness and takes time to make a habit of.

Wearing too many hats at once makes for a very heavy head. Chin up!

Too many hats makes for a very heavy head. Chin up! Only one hat at a time for a successful daily transition.

*Drawing with a mouse is like eating with a plastic spork or getting dressed in the dark…it can be done, but it is far from ideal.
Multitasking Can Burn You

Multitasking Can Burn You

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Multitasking fails I have experienced include:

  • Trying to express breast milk with an electric pump and a “hands free” bra at the wheel of my car while driving home from work.

Result: very erratic driving, crying over spilt milk, and a sense of incompetence.

  • Attempting to barbecue chicken legs while gardening and talking on the phone in my underwear.

Result: let’s just say chicken fat can easily catch fire and only idiots don’t wear pants around flaming grease. Or unattended garden rakes.

  • Trying to cram for college finals while karaoke-ing in the smoky lounge of a Chinese restaurant.

Result: Crab Rangoons and hang over…successful. Calculus test and John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”…not as successful.

  • Conducting business phone calls while jogging and trying to spend quality yak yak time with my sister.

Result: accidentally leaving a lengthy, inappropriate message on my boss’ voicemail regarding my views on testosterone supplements.

I don’t know who I think I am most of the time, but it’s someone who can handle her shit a little easier. I am constantly overestimating my ability to pay adequate attention to multiple things at once. That’s probably why I have mucho responsibility yet a nagging feeling of underachievement.

Here’s the result of a recent decision to argue on speaker phone with my insurance company while mentally planning a party menu, sweating in the backseat of my car, and trying to console a crying baby:

A lonely piece of chocolate in the box after a multitasking fail
(Artist’s rendering. And when I say “artist” I mean someone else who has time to take photographs of things I need to talk about.)

I was also eating a piece of candy, but looked down to realize I had devoured nearly the entire box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. For a second I was confused since I really didn’t remember eating that many. “Wait a minute…who the hell took my chocolates?” Oh. I guess I did it.

Multitasking can be dangerous, I tell you! According to brainfacts.org, the human mind can only handle two tasks at once; any more than that is overload. Even with just 2 tasks going the brain must split its resources to get them done, so switching between these tasks costs us in performance. As we age this gets even worse.

Piling multiple things on your plate all at once can make you feel efficient, but you probably aren’t. To show up and knowingly do a half-assed job is just irresponsible, so why set yourself up ahead of time for failure?

Divided attention is bad for us, especially when we are:

  1. Driving or operating tools

Obviously you could kill yourself or other people. So put down the Rubik’s cube while you are working the backhoe, please.

  1. Eating

Mindless snacking or eating on the run is never satisfying and it confuses our bodies. We can either overeat or choose nutrient-poor foods, ultimately depriving ourselves.

  1. Making important decisions

There is a reason we can’t legally sign papers while under the influence. Likewise you should save your heavy thinking for times when you are not distracted.  Because, as when you are intoxicated, part of your brain will be unavailable to process the complexities.

  1. Performing precise tasks

Eye surgeons don’t check Facebook while working and neither should you.

  1. Being present with ourselves or loved ones

It does not count as quality time with your family if you are not actually listening to what they’re saying.  Also, you can’t really get in the zone unless you have purposely eliminated extraneous demands.

So the moral of the story is: stop freakin’ trying to do a bunch of things at once, because basically your brain is not made to be successful at walking and chewing gum at the same time.   Or patting your head while rubbing your stomach.

Not only do we attempt to layer tasks that actually matter; we also ask for unnecessary interruptions.  For most of us the day is structured to welcome things that will sabotage the flow of thought.  The amount of distractions in modern America only add folly to the already intense demands of work and family life, so why not limit them?  How exactly are notifications and commercials useful to your productivity?  Are you pretty much always available to be reached by phone, text, email, and social media?

The main reason I have such issues with doing too much at once is assigning similar priority to each task, instead of eliminating or delaying others to focus on the most important one.  When I plan ahead I can easily see what is important and what’s not, but when I’m reacting or already running crazy the logic is more elusive.  Every single little busy thing just isn’t THAT important, not even barbecued chicken, compared to my well-being and relationships.

Trying to do only one thing at a time might make me feel like I’m not doing enough, but if I nail it—if I get it right—it should be more rewarding.  I would rather have one complete success than a bunch of mediocre finishes or downright failures.  In the end I should be getting more out of life if I simply give my brain enough space to work.  Important people and processes deserve my full presence, pants or no pants.

“Life ain’t nothin’ but a funny funny riddle.” —-John Denver
What Reminds You of Your Real Goals?

What Reminds You of Your Real Goals?

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I often lose sight of what I really want.  It is easy to get caught up in things that don’t really matter, distractions and avoidances that help dilute the sting of failure when trying to reach a goal.  Sometimes those coping mechanisms are in direct opposition to my true desires.

I can get depressed or bored thinking about my health problems and it makes me want a Monte Cristo sandwich or something fried dipped in ranch dressing.  It is no secret that I have overeating tendencies and I also have what I like to refer to as “blood sugar issues”.   Hyperglycemia can lead to so many poor outcomes.  I am fully aware of how losing one’s eyesight, kidneys, or legs can be devastating to quality of life. I have personally wrapped the stumps of newly amputated legs of diabetic patients. And then watched the patients call their families and friends to sneak them thick stacks of tortillas or a 2 liter of cola. Even when loss is fresh, and literally painful, old habits die hard.

I have considered tattooing the likeness of my kidney or heart on my arm as a reminder that what I eat might take those things from me someday. It is damn hard to keep motivation going, to keep goals and realities at the forefront of my thoughts, intentions, and actions.  Ultimately it is my desire to live a long and healthy life.  To spend as much time as possible with people I love doing things I enjoy.  In order to do those things I need my organs and my ability to walk, to see.  So why can’t I be honest with myself when I binge eat a cake, that I am sorta killing myself in shortened life or functionality?  The ideal would be to preserve my health, not squander it foolishly.

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