When Projects Collide
A Cautionary Tale of Multitasking, Overwhelm, and Healing
I love freelancing — I can work when I want and choose the projects that mean something to me. I’m not a 9-5 cubicle slave, so if I want to take a couple of hours in the middle of the day to meet a friend for coffee, I can do that, as long as I meet my deadlines. Being self-employed also has its drawbacks, like this week when I have multiple projects all with competing deadlines, holiday houseguests finally departing, an empty refrigerator, and a stack of bills to pay sitting on my desk. This happens sometimes, and I try not to stress about it. My mantra in times like these is that if nobody’s dead or in jail, it’s not a bad day.
Yesterday, however, came close. The last time I had a perfect storm of too many things to accomplish in a finite amount of time was the first two weeks in November. I was proud of myself for getting everything done on time, albeit with a touch of stress and many long hours sitting at the computer. I’m a supreme multitasker. I can answer the phone, answer email, write a paragraph, and edit an article all at the same time, or so I thought. I finished the ongoing monthly project I have for one client and I got all of the stories for the magazine edited, finalized, and off to the designer. I was pleased with myself and ready for the holidays.
This past Tuesday, in the middle of working on the ongoing project, which always requires lots of time at the beginning of the month, I got the magazine proofs back. These require an exacting check for little mistakes and typos, but it has to be done quickly so we can get it off to the printer.
I skipped my morning workout yesterday because I knew I had a long day ahead of me and I wanted to get started. I began with the ongoing project and then moved to the magazine in the middle of the day. It looked fine at first — just the usual misplaced page number or missing commas, nothing major. I went back to my other project and came back to the magazine late afternoon. As I got into the articles, I noticed some clunky sentence structures. Wow, how did we miss those? And then there was an issue with spacing. I thought I fixed that. And that misspelled word — I remember correcting that because I had to look it up. I opened up the folder with the final versions of the articles and began to compare. Sure enough, the laid out articles were not the finals. They were a mess.
After much anguishing over how such a huge mistake could have happened, I fired off an email to the executive editor. She called me (and by now it’s way past dinner time) and said she used the articles I sent. I opened up the email that I sent her in November, and yes, she used the articles I sent. The wrong articles. The half-edited ones with all of the mistakes in them. The ones I was now seeing committed to print.
How did I screw things up that badly? I can’t imagine. But I’m sure it had something to do with being overwhelmed and doing too many things at once, otherwise known as multitasking. In truth, the human brain is not wired to do that. When we’re trying to focus on writing, editing, answering email, making phone calls, cooking dinner, conversing with our spouse, and catching the day’s breaking news, different parts of our brains are firing off signals left and right. Eventually it gets overloaded and fries the circuits. What I was seeing yesterday was a result of my overloaded circuits back in November.
So yesterday, my day went like this — at the computer at 6:30am; breakfast at some point, but I don’t remember what or when; email, phone calls, editing, more email, more phone calls; a trip to the bank early afternoon; lunch at my desk consisting of the last of the fudge and Christmas cookies; more email, more phone calls, more editing; dinner at around 8:30pm consisting of a Chipotle burrito and two glasses of wine, also while sitting at my desk; more editing; and finally, at 11:30, hitting the off button and dropping my exhausted head on the pillow.
Today will be different. I started at 6:30am at my desk, and I’ve cleared everything off of it but the things I need to work on my one project for the day. When I finish this post, I’ll grab some fruit and oatmeal and then, when the sun gets a little higher in the sky, I’ll be going for a meditation walk. A meditation walk means I don’t worry about my time, I leave the iPod with the Italian lessons at home, I shut off my chattering monkey mind, and I just walk. I feel the cold air on my face, I listen to the geese honking overhead, I notice the pink-tinged lenticular clouds in the sky. I become fully present in the moment. I reconnect with myself. I allow myself to breathe, to become calm, and to give my fried synapses time to rest and repair.
When I come back, I’ll let the phone ring and return calls when I can devote full attention to the person on the other end. I’ll check my email again at lunch time, after I’ve had lunch in the kitchen with my understanding spouse. I will finish my day by 6:30, eat a healthy dinner and be in bed by 10. I will retire my gold medal for multitasking not just today, but every day going forward.
When you’re a get-it-done, energetic, committed-to-the-cause person, as I’m guessing most of us in this community are, it’s easy to move into a state of overwhelm without even realizing you’re there. Yesterday I got a big smack upside the head, and now I can step back, take a deep breath, and make some changes.
How about you? How do you cope with overwhelm? Share your ideas.
You are so right, we are not designed to multi-task but it is so easy to think that we can. It really helped me to move from a home office to a “real” one. There is no distractions from housework – unwashed dishes, laundry. Even purring kitty kats and the lure of the afternoon nap are gone.
One of the things that I did drop off completely in the last few months was working out and yoga. Thinking I didn’t have time for it. Wrong. Even if I’m not training for an event regular workouts are great for combating stress. It helps clear the mind and restore the body. So these are activities that have to start being a priority again.
To combat overwhelm I also need to learn to use these two words more often: NO and HELP! Just saying no from the get-go if I cannot commit fully to a project. Then being able to ask for help from other people more often.
You’re right, Sandra — HELP and NO should be a part of everybody’s vocabulary.
As far as multi-tasking goes, I just read a great book, Brain Rules, 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina. In it, he talks about the physiology of the brain when you try to focus on more than one thing at a time. It’s impossible. Can’t be done. And people who try to do it consistently take 50% longer to complete each task and make 50% more mistakes. He also talks about the benefits of exercise for optimal brain functioning. I highly recommend the book — it even comes with an entertaining DVD if you don’t have time to read the whole thing.
Thanks for the book tip. I’ll add that to my ever growing Amazon wish list!