blame it on my ADD...

As a woman, but more specifically, as a mother, i am programmed to multi-task.  i check e-mail while stirring dinner on the stove.  i make phone calls while folding laundry.  i change the baby's diaper while talking my three-year-old through replacing the toilet paper roll.  i am constantly doing a hundred things at once.  and for this reason, i feel like i am not wholly doing one thing ever.
today, i came out of the baby's room (where i was simultaneously putting her in for a nap and reading a book to M) to find the dishwasher open and half full/or empty?!?  was i in the midst of filling it or emptying it?  there was a pile of laundry on the kitchen counter (my washer/dryer combo is virtually in the kitchen).  was it clean or dirty?  i had all the spices out on the other counter to start prepping my crock-pot dinner.  but along with the crock-pot, i had taken out all of my serving dishes.  the kitchen was a disaster.  why had i suddenly stopped everything i was doing in here to put the baby to sleep?  she hadn't even been crying...
my brain works in circles.  constant circles.  while i am in the middle of one (or several) tasks, i think about what i could be doing more effectively, time-wise.  i probably put something in the dishwasher that sparked a thought of, 'if i put the baby down now, i can more effectively finish these chores and be able to sit down quicker...' (HA! like that will ever happen!)


***ASIDE: i am adding this aside, because i think it is very fitting.  as i am typing this (hunched over at the kitchen island), i am stirring the beef broth and simmering the oil to add the beef cubes to in a minute.  i have already left the room twice to check on M (who is having a slumber party with a hundred stuffed animals in the living room) and to go back to my room to get something, of which i forgot by the time i got there...***


And, my point is?  i don't even remember.  just kidding.  i need to focus more.  i need to take on one task at a time, devote my full attention to it, complete it, and then move on.  i think i might just get more done in a more efficient manner if i do.  my goal for the rest of today is to do just that.  start AND finish each task at once.  if something else catches my attention, i am going to tell that thing to hold on!  and hopefully i will remember to un-hold it when i'm through.  i am off to start my day of new full-attention-span working.  i'll keep you posted (although not while i am working on something else) as to my success!