Mono-tasking

Time. It waits for no man. And it certainly doesn't wait for me.

As I look back at my run of 30 day challenges and especially the one I'm currently on, it is apparent that the biggest challenge in my life - by far is time. Lack of it, management of it, just plain not having any of it.

In the first challenge, on the occasions that I didn't go to the gym (or do the equivalent work out), it was because I didn't have time. When I struggled to buy Gavin gifts in the second challenge, it was because I didn't have time to go shopping (although I still managed to give him a nice gift, MERF!) On the days when I failed the writing challenge it was  because I didn't have time to spend sitting at a PC or even with a pad - despite having a topic I wanted to write about. I even said at the end of that particular challenge that I'd continue... and I haven't, because of.. you guessed it... lack of time.

And now, the current attempt to meditate everyday has been (so far) an absolute failure. The combination of not being able to find somewhere quiet when I have the time to do it and, mostly, not having the time to do it, means I've utterly, utterly bombed out on this one. It's day 13 and I've only succeeded on 5 days. That's abysmal.

So why is this? When did my life become an overloaded, never-ending sequence of things to do and places to be?

I want to blame the internet. Hey, it's a great thing to blame! Distracting me all the time, increasing the number of TV shows I can watch exponentially. Hell, let's blame the internet for everything that's wrong with the world!

But no. It's not that. It is true that it takes up time, but, when I was doing the 'no recreational internet challenge', I still managed to fill my day to the brim. And, more pertinently, when I lived in Japan I had internet access on tap, all day, everywhere, Yet I never struggled with my daily routine the way I did before or after that. So it's definitely not the internet, but there maybe a clue right there. Hmm. Japan...

Japanese culture is different from our own in so many ways. Obvious ones and not so obvious. And the not so obvious one where I think I'll find my answer. It's to do with idea of multi-tasking.

At some point in the last decade, someone, somewhere, came up with the idea that multi-tasking is the way forward. I think it started off with the meme that women are much better at multi-tasking than men. Or at least, this common thread (certainly on Facebook) appeared around the same time. Which is probably true, by the way. 

It has since become the mantra of today's modern, mobile device enabled, flexitime, protein drink boosted, do, do, do, urban society. To get anything done these days, You have to multi-task. You have to do many things at once, because if you aren't multi-tasking, you aren't making the best use of your time.

I call bullshit on that. Multi-tasking is bunk. It's something that computers can do. That machines can do well. But It's not something that we - human beings - do well.

Yes, we can do several things at once, but most of those are unconscious actions. Walking, talking, avoiding objects, while taking a drag on a cigarette and scratching an itch - can all be done at the same time, but only one of those activities - talking - requires concious effort and not that much. 

What I see around me are people doing many things poorly. I see people (myself included) only partially engaged with their jobs, each other and their location. I see a general acceptance of lack of craft. We accept poor quality in lieu of efficiency and convenience. Which brings me back to Japan.

I only lived in Japan for a year and a half, so I'm not going to claim to be an expert. For one thing, I don't speak Japanese and for another, the company I worked for held my hand the whole way and made life really easy (in a right-wing Christian sort of way, but that's another story). But I was there long enough to see some fundamental differences between cultures. And one of those is where and how you focus. Craftsmanship.

I'm going to generalise now. The Japanese don't cut corners. They do things properly. By which I mean, if there is an accepted, right way of doing something - say, building something, crafting something, growing something - they will do that way. No need to find another, quicker way to do it, if the accepted way gets the best results. That doesn't mean you can't improve the technique, but doing something quicker is not necessarily an improvement.

So why would you multi task? Why would you reduce focus on what you are doing? Why wouldn't you give something all the attention that it deserves? If it's not worth doing properly, why do it at all?

The end result of this, is a much calmer, lifestyle, rich with skilled artisans, each profoundly good at doing whatever their thing is. Masters of their craft.

It also results in a much simpler personal agenda. It's a lot easier to manage your day if you are not juggling several things at once.

So, I need to simplify my daily routine. Juggle less stuff.

Mono-tasking. It's the way forward.

and remember: Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.

Inner Peace

It's time for a change. It's time for something new. it's time... for a new challenge!

The last couple of days I've been hanging about on street corners, asking people for ideas. On sunday I stood on a crate at speakers corners and challenged people to challenge me. I shouted from the highest mountain. I... I... I...

I did none of those things. I did the next best thing. I asked Facebook.

Lots of ideas came flooding in. Most of them quite doable. All of them interesting in their own way. I might list them all in another blog. Right now, however, whilst I need only one, I'm going to make a challenge out of two of them.

First of all, from the other side of the world, Suzanne MacNish suggested...

"I also noted a theme in your blog about some of these challenges making you feel better- so from a sleep deprived mother I have the sleep challenge for you (oh how a good nights sleep would make me feel better!). It may be too tough for a London summer so may be best to hold off to later in the year. But the challenge is to set yourself a reasonably early time that you need to be in bed by every night (eg 10pm). You don't necessarily have to be asleep- you can read a book or get up to other bed activities- but no TV or ipads. This includes Friday and Saturday nights- where the challenge gets tough!"

Then, from much closer to home, Martin Barry suggested...

"Meditate for 30 minutes each day.Or just find 30 minutes where you just sit down and shut yourself off from the world and try and empty your mind."

I like them both, so I'm going to combine them into one. The challenge will be to spend 30 minutes each day meditating or sitting peacefully, clearing my mind, switching off from the world. BUT, if I have failed to do that by 10.00pm, then it's off to bed with me!

I recently had a preliminary diagnosis of potential Hypertension. AKA Extremely High Blood Pressure. How high? Well, on successive readings, it tends to be 150 /110 on average. High enough that my Hernia operation was cancelled until it got below 140/100... but since the op it's gone back up again.

Now, this is related to a number of things, but one of them is lack of sleep and another is stress at work, so this combo challenge is an opportunity to positively affect my health in an area that really needs it.

I started yesterday. I managed to lie down in a quiet environment for 30 minutes in the middle of the day, thinking of nothing. I played some really mellow ambient music in the background and I think... I'm not actually sure... that I drifted off into a weird semi dream like state. Afterwards, I felt strangely serene and a bit floaty. Not the same as if I'd just had an afternoon nap. different some how. Perhaps as the challenge goes on I'll have better words to describe it.

Today I wasn't so successful. I went to a small park at lunch time with the intention of sitting peacefully in the sun, but ended up on the phone to my sister for the entire time. Later, at when I got home, I tried to lie down quietly but failed again: there were just too many distractions. Everything from fighting cats in the back garden, to an ice-cream van out front. So it's off to bed early with me, as soon as I finish typing this.

I can see this isn't going to be a walk in the park...