266. Doing One Thing

I’ve tried to let myself to allow myself to just be. It’s easy to find yourself pulled in a million different positions in one day. I’m no different. I felt like I had to do something yesterday. I wasn’t feeling all that great, but I felt like I should either go grocery shopping, do laundry, or start on a new project on my house. I didn’t do any of those things. I told myself that I’d just try and feel better and get over my cold. So I made some  I just laid down on the couch and finished reading the newspaper. I just wanted to do that one thing.

Surprisingly, I didn’t feel lazy. I felt good to get through the newspaper that usually sits on my kitchen table throughout the week. I didn’t need to be anywhere. I just focused on that one thing and I felt all right at the end of the day. I slept well and now I’m up for the next day.

I’ve tried to just do one thing at a time throughout my day. If I’m listening to a podcast, I try not to take out my phone and browse on it. I put away my phone on the bus and just concentrate on reading, or if I’m listening to a podcast, I just try to enjoy that.

I guess the fashionable thing to call this is mindfulness or being in the moment. That’s fine. I think it’s kind of dangerous that we expect to be entertained on all of these fronts in our lives. I keep thinking about how we literally have billions of hours of movies, music, television, podcasts, and books at our fingertips, yet we can’t find things to entertain ourselves. That seems kind of dangerous and disgusting. I get that choice is a good thing, but I think three choices is much healthier than 3,000.

I’ve thought about that with dating apps. Even though I’ve used them extensively, I thought about their usefulness. I know I’ve brought out one where you swipe while I’m doing things. It feels like homework or something you’re supposed to do. I think that’s one thing I miss about courting someone (wow, that sounds old fashioned), it hasn’t been a lot of fun. You’re supposed to have a bevvy of hookups and potential mates at your fingertips! It’s more complicated than that. If you’re presented as part of a pu pu platter, you’re going to be treated like one. You’ll be sampled, and if they don’t like you, you’ll be put back. It just feels weird. I don’t like it anymore.

During the home stretch, I’m guessing we’re all going to get way more addicted to the political horse race. It’s going to happen while we’re at work, eating dinner, on the bus, or doing any number of things. After the debate on Monday, I watched the 10 to 15 minutes of analysis from the PBS folk and I logged onto Facebook for a little bit. After a few minutes of scrolling through cheers for Hillary, I decided to log off. I didn’t need anymore analysis. I could step away. I allowed myself to. Sleep would probably be more helpful anyway.