Focus and multi-tasking

I’m not a multi-tasker. It was nice to hear of a report recently that said that even though multi-tasking was thought previously to be good for the brain, this is no longer considered to be true. There you go, another one of those studies like the ones about food that, just when you’re getting used to everyone looking at you funny because you still eat butter, reverses its findings so that, if you were so inclined, you could say “I told you so.”

Being as I’m not a multi-tasker, multi-tasking times wear on me. This month, just as I was starting on the first home improvements in fifteen years, I was called for jury duty. I had to quick finish up with my taxes before that started last week. The jury duty has been great actually, but I can’t talk about it. And even if I could, I’d be stymied by the way my brain gets when it’s had multi-tasking thrust upon it.

The great thing about any creative endeavor is that it requires focus. That’s also its curse in a multi-tasking world. One thing I can say about the beauty of jury duty is that it’s focused: cell phones off, previous obligations canceled, attention required and also appreciated. Ah. No wonder I’ve been liking it.

I’m in one of my periods where it seems stupid to share when no one’s sharing back. I’ve finally signed on with a new website company who assures me that I haven’t had the kind of blog that gets noticed. Then I feel the whole blessing/curse thing again.

If you’ve noticed, I’m also taking a break from writing on the practices of A Course of Love. Maybe doing that writing even started the “why do it” feeling because, when you write with a somewhat more serious intention of sharing, you have more a yen for response. With a nice obscure little blog, you can mainly just write for the fun of it, when you take your break from other things, when you can respond to the yen to spend a few minutes with that creative side of yourself that you’ve been missing – just to get back in touch with “it” rather than with anyone else.

I maintain that writers write for themselves. Sharing is a side benefit. If sharing were the major intention, most of us would be hopelessly disappointed. Our creative sources call us out. They won’t be ignored. They invite us to spend time with ourselves and to express that time in words (or music, art, wood). Don’t ask me why. But, since I know we’re all creative types of one sort or another, I’m sure you understand.