Monotasking 101

What am I having for breakfast today?

What are we having for breakfast next Tuesday?

Did I change over the laundry last night?

Do I need laundry detergent?

I do need strawberries.
When will they start selling pumpkins?

 Ohhhh FALL...

I need to exercise.
I can't wait to decorate!

Where are my shoes?

Did I eat breakfast?

Monkey, Monkey, Underpants...

This is my mind on any given day. all day.

It races around like some olympic gold medalist from one thing to another until I have several things started, a mess and NOTHING completed.

enter: mono-tasking

I don't know about you but I really enjoy TedTalks, whether it be on youtube or podcast.

They generally get me motivated and ease that ever racing mind of mine.

A couple of months ago, I happened upon a TedTalk on Mono-tasking and it has changed.my.life...

You can find the TedTalk HERE if you want to listen.

monotasking: Choosing to focus on one task instead of multitasking

I posted on facebook the other day abut mono-tasking and several people were interested so I wanted to share here some tips that I have discovered. 

1. A goal without a plan is just a wish -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I am a planner by nature, admittedly almost to a fault.  

I plan out our weeks in several planners so that I can assure things go smoothly.

The first monotasking thing I do each week is plan for the following week.  I usually do this on Thursday mornings after breakfast.  I sit in my office with my planners and set myself up to succeed.

I strongly suggest making a top 3 priority.
If you get those three things completed, your day is successful!

2. Adopt a "finish the drill" mentality
I am a Georgia Bulldogs fan and a couple of years ago, they adopted the "finish the drill"
mentality and it was a AH HA moment for me.
Generally, I will start a project, the ADD kicks in and I am off to the next
project with a tornado of mess left behind.
Then at the end of the day, I am overwhelmed by my "productivity" mess.
Instead, I make myself "FINISH THE DRILL" complete the task and then clean up.

3. Bring yourself back to center.
I have been practicing yoga a lot lately and the "bringing myself back to center"
part really speaks to me.
When I feel like I am falling behind or have one million things to do and
just bring myself back to center and focus on the task at hand.

4. Lastly, be ok with not getting EVERYTHING done.
You are only one person.
To me, it seems that if I focus on one thing at a time,
I actually get more accomplished in the day.

Hope this helps some of you!

I will be sharing some of my planners and things soon!

Let me know how monotasking works for you!

XoXo