197. Taking it on all at once.

The American dream has everything to do with having it all. The internet has everything to do with having access to gazillion bites of information all at once. People now want everything and they want it quickly.

It’s really tired me out. I’ve noticed a change in my attention span. It’s more difficult for me to read books. I find myself starting to skim about two-thirds of way through an article. These posts sometimes take about twice as long as they need to because I get distracted by other, shinier tabs online. I think of a thing that I may need to do at some point, but then I try to do it as soon as it pops into my head. I’ve started to try and weed that out.

I shutdown my computer and put my phone across the room one night last week. I wanted to read. Books that I’ve been meaning to pick up have been gathering dust and there’s a backlog. I wanted to put in the time to finish them. I set a timer for 25 minutes and picked up my book. Why 25 minutes? I read about something called the pomodro technique. I don’t know a whole lot about it, but it has to do with breaking down tasks into 25 minute increments. Twenty-five seems like a good number to divide. I made through three pomodros of book reading. It was the most non-newspaper reading I had done in a while.

Contrary to a lot of people, I like getting away from my phone. I know that economists will tell you there is a difference between what you say you like and what you actually like, but I know I’m happier when I’m away from my phone. Would I live without it? No, but a break is always good.

I put things on the backburner a few times at work this week. I’ve learned that it’s okay to push (some) tasks back if you are working on something else. It’s made me feel better and more relaxed. It’s nice to get into a groove without being distracted.

I know personal management is a lot different than many of the issues in the news lately, but I’ve been thinking about how to fix many of the issues that have faced our nation. After the killings of a few weeks ago, the terrorist attacks in France, and the unreset in Turkey, I frantically searched for answers via my Twitter feed. I thought I could find all the answers there, but after I got through the initial information, I just felt sick, powerless, and anxious.

Some people think that the only way to solve things is to protest or make big flashy statements. I disagree with that. I think protest is a necessary tool, but there are so many other little things that need to be done. I’ve signed up to do some of those little things. I’m looking forward to those things. You can’t tackle all the world’s problems at once. Sometimes you just have to divide it into incriments of time and go from there.