Musings on Multi-tasking

This week is going well so far. I've been working hard and paying close attention to timing my chores. It seems to be helping the stress level and productivity (always a good thing). Basically, though I find it hard to schedule strictly at this point (seems like "life" always happens and throws us off), I have been getting better at predicting patterns, and overlapping things that fit together. It's sort of like a very complicated 3-D puzzle, except that there is no detailed picture to follow, and the pieces are not cut to fit together exactly...you just sort of have to figure out which ones go together the best, and which ones won't fit until others are in place, and...one more thing...the pieces that you haven't placed yet are constantly changing, so if you spend too long on one part of the puzzle, you might miss your chance too complete a different part. (hm...this sounds like a fun arcade game, but when you're life (and your family's) depends on it....stress can result). Anyway, I'm bringing this up because when I first started trying to organize my tasks, I thought that all I would have to do was figure out what needed to be done, and then figure out a way to remind myself to do it. But I left out an important part--the daily, even hourly job of ordering and shifting these tasks based not only importance, but also on practicality. Here's what i mean...let's say my list for the day is (actually it was yesterday's list:):

Read Bible

Make granola bars (for Av's breakfasts)

work in vegetable garden (plant basil and parsley seeds)

Dust (pretty much whole house)

*play football with Joel

clean car seats

wash sheets (and get them back on the beds by bedtime)

*wash, dry and fold all other laundry (which was about one super full load)

Bathe boys

*finish reading for Titus 2 tea (about a chapter and a half)

clean Joel's humidifier

unload/reload dishwasher

read Bible story to Joel and work on memory verses

(Note: we were planning to have leftovers, so dinner preparation was not on here)

If I plan only based on priority, I may only get half of the list done, because I didn't think through practical timing. If I had tried to do my 3 most important things for the day (marked with a *) first, it would have looked like this...Mommy's trying to read while boys are whining and fussing, Mommy's trying to play football, but not enjoying it, because I'm not sure when I'm going to get to the dishes, and Mommy is trying to do laundry, but Joel keeps running through the piles and saying "Mommy, play light sabers with me". Yes, we have had days like that...

So as I was writing out my list, this time I asked myself several questions:

What can I do while both boys are up?

what can I do while just Joel is up?

What can I do while Evan is up?

What can I do while I'm feeding Evan? (without him crying)?

How can I include Joel in some of these tasks, so he doesn't get bored and clingy (trying to lower the stress, remember)?

What things can I only do if/when both boys are sleeping?

When will the weather be best to do my outside work? (I failed miserably at this one....it was hot! and the sun was shining right where I was working...but sometimes sacrifices must be made:(

Asking these questions really helped me structure my day so that it flowed well. Joel enjoyed helping me dust (actually it was his idea...), and while I cleaned the ever-so-messy kitchen after breakfast, he organized his play dishes and picked up his toys (we were sort of racing), then his reward was playing football with me. While he was napping, I made the granola bars during naps, and was able to finish my reading while feeding Evan. Then, we all went outside for some gardening fun (except that Joel doesn't like to help, since he doesn't like to get dirty). I didn't get the car seats washed (mostly because I forgot to take Evan's out of his room and didn't want to wake him up), but thankfully that puzzle piece fit in just fine today:)

I know this is dreadfully long, but it usually helps me to get some of this stuff out of my head in some kind of coherent way (at least that's the goal). All that to say, I found something out this week...multitasking itself doesn't have to be stressful. You just have to make sure you don't "multi" tasks that don't fit together. A little extra planning (balanced with flexibility) can go a long way in multitasking without multi-stressing.