DSTSS - Guilty as charged

62. Do one thing at a time

this is for Julian.. the person who facebook friended me way back in 2007.  little did we know.

I love social media - i love to connect on facebook, instagram, sometimes twitter, never pinterest or LinkedIn and has life become to FOMO with the YOLO of doing everything with a smart phone constantly in hand - ITS (i think so)

when don't sweat the small stuff was first written back in 1997 - yes last century - the cordless telephone seemed to be the greatest distraction in the home and the ability of doing one thing at a time - with this genius invention - made it possible to do anything within range of the home base.

my how things have changed. in the ensuing years (nearly 20 of them) it's pretty much possible to do anything with the click of a button, regardless of where and when you are.

the concept of doing one thing at a time, seems obsolete with the ongoing intrusion of reaching for the mobile phone to status check - when cooking, when eating, when in bed, when at work, when in the lift (ha - wifi doesn't work in the lift), when on the bus, when walking - need i go on and on and on.

it's become impossible to do one thing at a time without having to check in, update, post, text and on and on and on.

i think there is definitely a place for multi-tasking - it is a woman's greatest forte after all - but i for one am mindful enough to realise that by having my face continually in a smart phone, is making my real time world a smaller place - while my virtual world takes over. it's not multi-tasking, it's dumming down. not sure if i want that. and if the the objective of this chapter is to do one thing at a time, then i too am guilty as charged.

but how to you break the cycle?  is there even a cycle - is this the way of the future - are you a loser if you choose to sit in a group of people and converse, rather than be one hand on the phone and a half ear in the conversation?  don't mind my spasm - it's because my phone is not in range.

I don't know, but i do know that at 49 years of age, the invention of social media is probably equivalent to the discovery of the car, electricity, the microwave, the cordless phone - anything that you never had, but can't live without and this thing means that you can't focus on one thing at a time cause there is too much to distract.

as i have gone through this journey with this book, i think back to my early days where i shared my anxiety and the steps i took to overcome it and a key for me was to remind myself every hour to bring awareness to what was happening in my body. maybe now the key is to bring my awareness to what i am doing with my time and to make sure i am doing the best thing with it.....mindfulness 101.

remember the days we didn't have a mobile phone - go on, i dare you! what did you miss out on?  i remember that the most exciting thing i could do with a landline or public phone was that you could dial 199, hang up, and then the phone would ring, with no one on the other end.. that was a great public phone box trick.

note to self: i don't want to be the person you crash into in the street cause you or i have our faces in the phone - i want to be the person who you see at the traffic lights or the cafe going hands free and doing something as interesting as reading a book - that's probably just as uncomfortable as the amount of colour i am splashing about this black entrenched city. change is good.