Messing With Time

                                     Simply Walking

Last night was one of those nights, we've all had them.  After teaching and a medical appointment with my son, I arrived home in the dark, wolfed down half of my doggy bag consisting of tofu and broccoli only to dash out the door for a "just announced" sports recognition gathering at the high school.  By the time I finally got home later in the evening, really all I wanted to do was relax by playing parcheesi with my husband. However, I still had two chapters to read for homework, I had to walk and get two thousand more steps to meet my exercise goal.  Glancing at the time, I devised a plan.   My text book stretched out on the kitchen counter and if I moved my arms while walking in place, my Fitbit recorded a step.  Conceivably I could read and walk at the same time, after all, I thought, I have done this time and time again at the Y.  

My arms pumped.  My Fitbit recorded.  Time saving schemes can give one false hope to "do it all."  I began to read the first few paragraphs of  my homework,a chapter devoted to Reading Comprehension. (You will discover that this topic is ironic.) I glanced at my Fitbit app and quickly calculated the number of remaining steps and found myself re-reading the first few paragraphs of my homework.  Distracted and perplexed, I had no idea what I had just read while I walked.  I stood still, finger to text and began to read aloud.  As I read further and further into the text, I began to walk in place again only to stop a few moments later having not absorbed any of the reading.    The allure for saving time by reading and walking simultaneously was ineffective.  

Completing tasks mindfully, one at a time is the only way to tackle any "To Do List". Multi-tasking I was reminded again is highly over-rated.