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Dancing Through the Interruptions of Life

Today I was watching a little girl running to catch up with her father in a crowded street of Manhattan. She was happy spiraling between people and dogs. She was greatly enjoying it … She was feeling happy and radiated her smile to the people as she twisted and turned, skillfully avoiding them.

That inspired me to be playful when I’m being interrupted by phone calls and urgent emails while I’m focusing on writing something important that requires my full concentration. Can my brain be functional enough to immediately switch back towhere I left off when the interruption came? I notice that when I retain my cool when interrupted, I can switch back to my project almost immediately. When I am frustrated, however, I need first to deal with that uncomfortable emotion before I can continue to write.

I want to practice just skipping along as that little girl did. She trusted she would not lose her father. Can I trust that I don’t lose my concentration?

I’m going to work toward it because on a certain level I like multitasking.

I’m conducting a little poll – What about you? Do you like multi-tasking or do you prefer concentrating only on a single task?

Comments
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  • Ted Nation January 10, 2009, 10:39 pm

    Hmmmm. For myself the multi-tasking thing works best. Of course there are times when interruptions would be too distracting, so in those times I put the phone on silent, or direct to voice mail. But mostly I prefer short bursts of action on projects and interruptions work well to generate these short bursts. This allows me to move several projects along without getting bogged down by any of them. But it is more a matter of attitude than it is of interruptions. If you don’t mind the interruptions, or even embrace them, you are able to serve more people. If interruptions disrupt your concentration or you cannot get back into the flow, if your mind rebels every time the phone rings, if you you are a one-subject type of person, you should set up your work life to accommodate that. It doesn’t matter what I think or do, if it doesn’t work for you, find something that does.

    ted