Dual purposes and single purposes
I made an interesting realization last week. Nearly everything I do has multiple purposes. If I pick up a sewing project it is because I enjoy sewing and because Gleek needs a new church dress. If I weed my yard it is because I enjoy gardening and because it makes the house look nice. The more purposes that an activity has attached, the more likely it is to actually get done. All my enjoyments also have agendas. I think there is nothing inherently wrong about mutlitasking this way. It is a good and useful skill. But lately all the needed aspects of my activities have had far more emphasis than the enjoyment aspects. I think I need to make just a little space for single purpose activities. I need to give a child my full attention just because they want to talk to me. I need to read a book just for fun. I need to give myself more micro vacations. I’ve done much better at this during the past week and I can feel the tension unwinding. It is good. Today I spent several hours on single purpose activities. It was harder than I expected. Part of my brain kept agitating, telling me we weren’t being productive enough. Obviously I need more practice at taking time off.