Continuous Partial Attention

What makes you dive out of bed and into the day each morning? Anything? Something in this life must excite you - must launch your heart and soul and mind into a tizzy - and dump loads of eagerness into your body.

For me, writing ratchets up the internal drive. Most writers I've met share similar stories. Yet we tend to procrastinate or claim the cop-out 'writer's block' or, most often, we simply overload ourselves with unreasonable deadlines and tasks.

I learned something very useful this past Saturday at the Florida Writers Association meeting in St. Augustine. I learned - and understood - how multitasking destroys your ability to accomplish goals. Many of us, myself included, pride ourselves on our incredible multitasking abilities. Did you know that studies now show multitaskers are less likely to complete tasks?

While the study quoted in Saturday's meeting opened my eyes, the information did not particularly shock me. After all, I am a multitasker, and I note all too often tasks remain on my plate sometimes for months. These tasks often bog me down emotionally, spiritually and tactically. The more tasks I see repeatedly in front of me on a daily basis, the more I retreat to flitting around in a superhuman attempt to get everything done -

Or nothing done.

Do you ever run into this problem? Incomplete tasks pile up and you get so overwhelmed you do nothing? This happens to me. Ok, the situation does not "happen" to me, I bring it on. So do you.

What do we do about this? The answer stares me in the face every time I look at my project list on my whiteboard. Knock tasks out to completion before you begin the next task. On the surface, that solution sounds simple enough. In fact, the solution is simple, just not easy.

Prioritizing your tasks will always be the critical factor. At this moment I am staring at tasks of 1) completing a publishing proposal for a potential client, 2) completing the finishing touches on a book going to print, 3) write an article, 4) check on meeting plan for this evening, 5) work on finishing my 2012 marketing plan, 6) outline my novel, 7) work on my nonfiction book on publishing, 8) finish off the last hurdles to my new poetry book going to print, 9) catch up on emails, 10) proofread the group novel my focus writing group has written.

Just glancing at this list makes me wince. More time is required of me on this list than is humanly possible on one day. Most of this list has been in front of me for quite a while. I woke up this morning wondering why I even attempt to do what I do. I don't even have the speech writing task nor the scheduling of speeches for 2012 on that list. I lay in bed this morning, with a blank stare I'm sure, and wondered what pulls my feet to the floor?

This article.That's what does it. I get jazzed when I write. I love the interaction between myself and the words on the page. I love the creativity juices that flow and energize my senses. I thrive on the passion of the written word where you get to have a conversation between your mind and the blank page. I especially enjoy when a thought or idea claws at my mind with the intent of becoming fleshed out into a collection of words, thoughts and concepts that hopefully impact and help others.

Continuous Partial Attention Syndrome - one of the more appropriately titled scientific nom de plumes I've run across in a while. Multitaskers get caught up in attempting to handle everything and get little accomplished. A singular focus on a task, to completion, will trump anyone like me who attempts to accomplish 10+ tasks a day.

Writing a book is not something you complete in a day. While I loathe discipline and time frames and schedules, as I writer, I must allow myself blocks of time each day to work on my craft. Too often my publishing business overwhelms my writing. I get out of bed each day with the given of a passion to write. Yet, too often, I only squeeze out a few hundred words, and poor words at that. I work too hard at trying to make sure all the tasks are getting their due.

Writing puts my feet on the floor each day. As I focus my attention on that most desired of tasks, the other tasks will fall in line by priority. I don't know about you, of course, but when I feed my writing passion, I find more motivation to knock out other tasks on my breaks. After all, unless you're on a major-muse roll (which occasionally happens), every writer requires a break.

What I want to get across to all the struggling writers out there is this - if writing launches your rocket, stop placing your craft behind other projects that do not fulfill you. Allow yourself the joy of pursuing your dream. Give permission to your creative nature to expand and breathe and walk in this world. The day and time for your creativity will always be 'now'. To rob yourself of the opportunity plays the game of 'someday' rather than 'today'.

Not one of us living and breathing this day own a guarantee that the next moment won't be our last. This statement is not intended to be morbid or depressing or de-motivational. On the contrary, allowing your muse to 'fire up' and spring into action requires a sense of freedom as well as urgency. Putting off your dreams and passions for mundane tasks that keep you mired in a rut makes no sense.

Multitasking? Forget about it. Avoid pride in a buzz-word that leads to dead ends and unfinished projects. Focus-tasking. Now there's a step in the right direction. Focus on your desire to write and the knowledge that your voice is just as viable in this world as anyone else'. Don't get caught in the Continuous Partial Attention Syndrome prevalent in our lives today. Go for the Continuous Focused Attention Freedom available to you any time you choose.

You have the power. You own the ability. Now voraciously swim in the freedom of your creativity.