Mondays are………for multi tasking

Rows: Nil (V.Good)
Coffee: 1 (on recommendation of blood pressure nurse!)
Wine: none (as yet but day is young)
Voice Decibels: 40 (subdued yet persuasive) with small peak (after breath freshner incident – see below)
Genius Levels: Dumb and Dumber

Feeling benevolent today I decided to give Teenage Daughter a lift to college. This was my first mistake, adding this to an already unconquerable ‘Things To Do List’. My TTD List’ has 4 columns – work, kids, home and me. I’ll let you guess which one of the 4 doesn’t ever get done. Put it this way, I have had pedicure and eyebrow wax on the list for 2 months now and my feet still resemble a yaks and Dennis Healey would be proud of my mono brow.

However, still I do not learn and over commit myself daily – denying the undeniable fact that there are a mere 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and 52 weeks in a year. And in this absolutely finite time frame I have to be Super Mom, Wonder Director, Daughter to loving parents and Friend to many. So in order to fit it all in I multitask.

Multitasking has its perils. My normal morning routine is shortened by 15 minutes (by agreeing to aforementioned lift for Daughter) leaving me feeling less than fresh mouthed - my penchant for red wine leaving my breath this morning not unreminiscent of a camels. Whilst listening to Daughter do her 'OMG I so totally can't believe you just said that' routine, I forage in my MD handbag for my breath freshener – by-passing all the normal Mummy Dearest detritus – tissues, baby wipes, a cereal bar – plus Managing Director detritus – calculator, latest tax briefing from my accountant, my Dictaphone, Iphone - to find the small bottle of minty loveliness in the form of breath freshner. Recent additions to counter my mild hypochondria in the face of the flu epidemic include a small bottle of antibacterial hand cleanser. The bottles are spookily similar. Same shape. Similar smell with lid removed, same pump actions. Different consistency – but good ole me always gives a pump a second go just in case the first one was just a bit clogged up so I consequently had not one, but two mouthfuls of antibacterial hand cleanser as I sped Daughter towards college.

Nevertheless do I take heed, delete half of my TTD List and sort it all out? Of course not. Instead I head to The Office where the job of MD has a more detailed version of the TTD List – with four more columns – which would be fine if it’s just this weeks list – but it’s perpetual, never ending.

I used to get enormous satisfaction when faced with a completed a list – striking masterfully through each onerous task as it was done. But every Monday – regardless of how clear I am by Friday – there’s a new, fresh list. It starts to be over whelming. So I multi task. Whilst speaking on phone, I utter instructions to awaiting staff member and read through my email. Consequently I managed to send an erotic email to a similarly named work colleague when it should have gone to my husband, have baffled my new staff member by calling them someone else’s name for 2 days and have tried to order stationary from my osteopath. Must do better.

Buddhists call it mindfulness – I call it just doing one thing at a time. Eat and only concentrate on eating, organise and only concentrate on organising, drive and concentrate only on that. But then, I hear you say, what happens to the to do list??

No solutions I’m afraid – or I’d be a very rich woman. Now...how long to Wednesday?????