Focus

A few weeks ago I touched on being productive and mentioned in passing an e-mail. I went back and asked my sister if she still had a copy, and she did, and graciously sent it to me to share with all of you. I laughed and laughed at this. So here is the entire story...

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests: I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So I decide to put the bills back on the table & take out the garbage first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Pepsi I'd been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Pepsi aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. The Pepsi is getting warm. I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the Pepsi, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye. They need water. I put the Pepsi on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote someone had left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs. But first I'll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers. Quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the car isn't washed the bills aren't paid there is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter the flowers don't have enough water, there is still only 1 check in my check book, I can't find the remote, I can't find my glasses, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys. Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all darn day, and I'm really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail..... Do me a favor. Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don't remember who the heck I've sent it to.


 Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!

# # #

Isn't that great? I loved it. It is humorous, tongue in cheek, and poking fun at growing old. (I see some of me in this, and if we are all honest with ourselves we can all point out something that reminds us of ourselves.)

To me it is a great illustration of lack of focus and organization. One great time killer is being disorganized. A place for everything and everything in its place. Getting organized is tough. Right now my garage is in shambles. I've got.... never mind, part of being able to be productive and accomplishing things and managing your life and time is staying organized.

Also focus on what you want to accomplish. The person who wrote this did not stick to one task. Set priorities and work through them. Instead just wandered from one task to another, and never finished anything started. So focus. What is the most important thing to be completed. What needs to be done to do it? Don't let anything be a distraction from the goal.

Hope you enjoyed the story. I know I did the first time I read it, and again when my sister sent it to me.

What are you going to focus on? What do you do to stay focused? What works for you? What has been a distraction? What have you done to eliminate that distraction?