With these 7 quick tips, say ‘tadaaaa’ to the Absent Minded Professor in you!
For those of you who are following me, you must have read in my previous blog about the earth shattering experience I had!! (http://www.motheropedia.com/my-learning-from-absentmindedness/)
My mom attempted consoling me by narrating an incident wherein my dad (who had just separated from a joint family setup into a nuclear one), on one of those initial anxiety filled days was assigned the task of picking up my sister and me from an aunt’s house. When an eagerly awaiting mom opened the door to greet the family she saw dad standing there by himself.
The point that I am trying to drive home is that absentmindedness dwells in all minds, perhaps not alike, but dwells nonetheless. And at the risk of sounding cliched, I think it hosts on moms the most. I’ve put together a few pointers on how one can stop from losing track of what you are doing in the moment and traipsing off someplace else.
1. Be calm
One needs to watch one’s worrying. Fretting about things (and usually we fret about the most ridiculous things) keeps the mind agitated. What happens consequently is that our energy and attention is channelized away from what we are doing in this time and moment.
2. Be realistic about yourself
There is only this much that you can achieve at a given point in time. Acknowledge and accept it. Avoid multi-tasking and give your fullest concentration on the task at hand. When parts of your brain are broken up into pieces and each piece is assigned the job of doing a different thing, how are you going to get it done well? So the best thing to do is avoid filling your work plate full because it will only spill.
3. Pen things down
As a teacher, I still live the old school way. I’ve always made memo lists or a to-do list and found that it works well for me. My husband who is also married to the cyber world has tried to woo me into the charming web of technology. But I am not embarrassed to say that I find gadgets a tad bit annoying. I still love that list on my refrigerator that hollers at me each day reminding me about what has to be done. So just write things down.
4. Define places and use them consistently
Fixed places work! On account of what happened recently, my husband and I sat down and worked out spaces in our house for each of our requirements and allotted space for common things. And we have been consistent in maintaining these for a while now. We now know exactly where the car keys lie, where the read posts goes and where the new ones are! This helps us save time and we usually find things more easily. We don’t have to ransack drawers searching for keys when we are rushing out for work!
5. Mark appointments and dates
So my mom’s done this since forever. I just started recently. I now have a laminated planner (can’t afford to have steam spoil it) pasted on my bathroom wall. It greets me each morning with a reminder of what has to be done. Key dates, assignments, appointments, bill dates, etc. are marked.
6. Do it now
Prioritize and realize what needs to be done when. Delay and procrastination will lead to a clutter of jobs in the mind. This will only be a host for absentmindedness and forgetfulness.
7. Ask for help
I am not going to shy away on this one. I am no superwoman and I do not have endless reserves of energy. Asking for help allows me some time to space out the tasks on hand, to plan and to execute. This spaces things out a little bit and well, four hands are always better than two.
Food For Mommy’s Thought: Forget those things that aren’t worth remembering.- Tim Foley
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