Every day I watch as my son makes breakfast with one hand.
It is quite genius.
One hand cradles the phone while the other fries eggs, makes toast, and opens a tin of beans.
One eye turned left, and the other turned right like Egor in a chefs hat.
I saying nothing. I am calm and composed. After all, the boy is 20 years old. He has seen life. He has moved out, broke my heart, and moved back home. His old flatmate refused to do his laundry.
Once my son’s eggs are fried, and his toast is buttered on the right side, he takes to the stool at the kitchen counter. He props his phone against the teapot or maybe my hormone tablets box left there from the night before and begins to eat.
And watch. And eat. And watch. And eat.
From what I can tell, he enjoys neither of these activities.
He experiences a watered-down version of a breakfast that could be memorable and a show that could be funny.
If he turned off the phone and enjoyed the sensation of those squishy little tomato beans bursting between his teeth, he’d be happy.
If he held off on breakfast for twenty minutes and watched, with both eyes, whatever it is he’s consuming on Youtube, he’d be happy.
But he doesn’t. He tries to do both. So he misses the funny bits of the video and doesn’t appreciate the sheer joy of dipping the crispy apron of the fried egg into the tomato sauce of the beans.
We’re all guilty of this stupid phenomenon. Trying to do as many things as we can.
It’s crap. Rubbish. Pointless.
The past few weeks, I have struggled writing my book. Really struggled.
I want a clean house. But I want to write a book.
I want to spend time promoting our Youtube channel. But I want to walk the dog.
I want to spend time with my daughter, who, right now, is like a young colt kicking and screaming to be let off the training rope so that she can gallop to a big city and wear black kohl eyeliner. But I want to make some money.
I have been trying to do it all. And what have I done? Not much.
So last week I made a decision. To focus on one thing at one time.
No more beans and Youtube for me. No sir.
One hour, one thing.
And it’s working. The stress has lifted. I feel more productive as opposed to a rabbit trapped in the headlights.
If you’re struggling with the same thing, try this:
Get a sheet of paper. List all of the things that you need (or want) to do. Allocate a time for each. Do NOT let one bleed into the other. Focus solely on what you are doing, even if that task is mundane. Slow down. Be realistic, and be kind.
And never forget that beans make you fart.
Liz x
Quote That I Love: It seems to me that one of the great luxuries of life at this point is to be able to do one thing at a time, one thing to which you give yourself wholeheartedly. Unitasking. – Author: Michael Pollan
PS: If you enjoyed this post and would like to sign up for my weekly newsletter where I share lots more content like this (including how to do really scary stuff like what you used to when you were seventeen)…SIGN UP HERE!
PPS: If you have been following this podcast for a while, then you will know that we have just returned for six months in Europe and Asia. While we were there, we did a lot of housesitting. We are constantly asked how we did this and if we can share the website that we used. So here it is:
The initial ‘looking part’ is free. You can oggle all of the beautiful houses around the world that are waiting for YOU to look after them. Take a sneak peek here! (As I say, looking is completely free, so gander to your heart’s content).
Then, if you are serious about using Housesitting as a tool to travel the world for free (as we do), you can use my exclusive discount code to save yourself 20% by Clicking here.
Still not sure about paying for a Housesitting membership? Remember that the cost of a yearly membership (approx $80 using the discount code above) will be paid back (and more) on the first housesitting night. It really is that simple!
