The Other Side of Multi-Tasking

I didn’t get my post up like I’d planned yesterday. In fact, I don’t think I got ANYTHING done that I’d planned yesterday! And it’s not like something happened that I had to take care of instead. It was me… just me. I got in my own way.

I’m a multi-tasker and I’ve been one for as far back as I can remember. And throughout my life, it’s been an asset more often than a hindrance.

In high school, I was able to be in multiple clubs, spend time with my friends and still get my studies done and keep my grades at A’s and B’s. As a single mom, I was able to work multiple jobs, attend college, take care of my house, and still be completely involved in my son’s school, sports and activities.

But yesterday was one of those days where that “asset” got in my way.

I started out with good intentions. It was Monday… blog post day. This is what the game plan looked like when I got up:

1. Check email
2. Write a post for this blog
3. Run to the grocery store for a handful of items
4. Stop by the post office on the way home
5. Record a video to put on a landing page for this site
6. Record a couple of training videos for Ruth
7. Fix dinner
8. Work a couple hours in the evening on my research packs
9. Add blog challenge posts to Week 4 file

It looked like a pretty straight-forward day… until I got started… (Warning: Please keep your hands inside the ride at all times until it comes to a complete stop). 🙂

I checked my email. That led me to Tiffany’s post. I watched her vlog. I liked that she likes my Internet Marketing blog tagline. But it hit me that I’ve had that blog for a while, so I’ve had a chance to change it as the site (and I) have evolved.

But this one is a new blog. And when I created it, I did the same thing that I did originally over there. I came up with a rough tagline that “sort of” gave people an idea of what the blog was gonna be about, knowing full well that I was gonna have to revamp it eventually.

So I headed over here to check out the tagline. I don’t like it. It’s not that I DISlike it… it just bugs me because I know that it doesn’t give visitors a clear idea of what my focus is and what I’ll be covering. And the REASON it doesn’t is because I don’t know mySELF.

That’s not a good thing. So I decided to spend a little bit of time on the tagline.

I grabbed my notes that I’d jotted down over the weekend. I figured out that I’m still not going the exact direction that had originally gotten me fired up and motivated, so it was time to figure out where I made a wrong turn and where I lost focus.

I also wasn’t happy about not having a subscriber giveaway put together yet, so now I’m thinking about that too. It’s not that I haven’t thought of some things to do. It’s just that every time I do come up with something and then start to flesh it out, it doesn’t go in the direction that I want it to.

Research time!

I looked through my posts. I went and checked out some of the blog challenge posts. I hunted thru my Favorites. And I searched thru IM sites that belong to people I trust and follow. I even went through all my handwritten notes I have about this site.

And as I was going thru other sites, I found a theme I thought would work great on my PLR site so I headed over to THAT site. When I got there, I saw that my images weren’t displaying. So I headed over to HostGator.

I checked my htaccess file. The site was listed. And since that’s the extent of what I know causes disappearing image issues (from MANY conversations with tech support over at HostGator), I headed over to the online chat.

30 minutes till someone can chat with me. Not a problem. I’ll keep researching until they ding me.

An hour later, my site (that’s on the back burner right now anyway) is now displaying images. Great! But what the hell was I doing before I started talking with them?

I didn’t even know… but then it came to me. Not what I’d been working on, but the reason I HADN’T been working on my to do list.

As I was searching around for ideas, I found myself doing the usual. I start with something I was specifically looking for and, as I’m reading and learning, I run across something else, and that leads to something else, which leads to something else… and so on, and so on, and so on.

Arghhhhhhhh!

Four hours later, my sweetheart is back home from work, and I am still working on the technical to dos for this site because of course as I was visiting other sites I’d run across things that I knew I hadn’t done or things that I wanted to do or…. something!

And guess what I got done on my original list.

1. Check email – yep
2. Write a post for Dare to Get Personal – nope
3. Run to the grocery store for the handful of items on my list – nope
4. Stop my the post office on the way home – nope
5. Record a video to put on my landing page for this site – nope
6. Record a couple of training videos for Ruth – nope
7. Fix dinner – yep (cause by now we’re all hungry)
8. Work a couple hours in the evening on my research packs – nope
9. Add blog challenge posts to Week 4 file – nope

So exactly 2 out of 9… none of which were money producing activities that will keep me off a truck. And those things I did instead?

New tagline for this site? NOPE
Giveaway done for my list? NOPE
Website that I’m not currently focusing on displaying images? YEP…BUT WHO CARES!?

By the end of the day, I was worn out and wanted off the ride.

I was bouncing from one technical task to another, from one blog to another, from one idea to another and was just getting lost. It was like my computer programming days when I’d get so wrapped up and lost in the coding that I’d forget what I’d already done and what the program was supposed to accomplish to start with.

If there was any silver lining to be found for the day, it’s in the fact that the frustration I felt at the end of it from not having accomplished what I’d set out to do had at least given me an idea for a giveaway, along with the fact that it had gotten SO bad, that I was able to recognize the issue.

And becoming aware of it means I’m now working on a solution to keep it from happening regularly.

Your turn:  Have you discovered things you do to get in your own way? Have you found ways to work around them so that they’re less of an interference? I’d love to hear from you!

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