If multitasking is impossible, and it is, how do you get everything done?

Is it time management or distraction management?

All of the organization in the world flies out the window in the fact of constant distraction. Like the dog sidetracked by squirrels, the constant beep and bells and whistles of the electronics bombard us with Other Things To Do.

Multitask? No. Better to do one task at a time and get it out of the way, then move to the next task, than to try to “do two things at once,” which is impossible in practice.

How, then, to stay on task when the day and everyone around you conspires to pull you off track and call your attention to another task? Is there truly a way to prevent distractions, or is the solution merely to find a way to ignore everything except the task at hand, to harness enough willpower to stay on task?

There’s a multimillion-dollar do-it-yourself book waiting for the writer who solves this challenge: Fight the Squirrels: How to Harness the Willpower to Stay On Task.

Possible approaches – Remove the clutter. Turn off the alerts. Sit. Sift. Listen. Convince others to sit, sift and listen. Somehow hear the messages you need to hear in priority order, one at a time.

Concentrate. Stay focused while the world about you is in chaos. That’s the main task. Don’t try to multitask; there’s not such thing anyway.

Triumph over the squirrels or succumb to the cacophony.

A closet full of universes

Technology is freedom. The toaster changed the universe. The boat opened worlds. Clumping-style kitty litter saved continents. Tissue-paper handkerchiefs saved lives.


Every picture tells a story - but words expand the picture - and every person who sees the picture sees a different story - and every person who encounters the words hears a different story.

How many novels did she write? One - and several million.

I built bookshelves into what would be the clothes closet if we were using this room as a bedroom. It is a closet full of universes. A shelf packed with lifetimes. Each book a unique miracle, a collection of rare gifts waiting to be unwrapped.

We each pass this way just once, and forever. What miracle will we unwrap today? The joy of discovery is endless when we open ourselves to joy. The pain is endless when we focus on the pain.

Choose the joy, overcome the pain - open the closet and discover another universe.

Each day belongs to itself

Look at the calendar. Remember? Today is the day when – but no, it isn't. It's 365 days later, or 730, or 3,652 more or less.

This day has nothing in common with that day, except for the name we give it, and even that name is different by a year or two or 10.

Today is a day all its own, and while it's wise to remember and learn from the past, this is NOT that day.

What beauty can you create today? What wrongs can you right today? How can you make today one where a year or two or 10 from now, you remember, "THIS is the day when . . ."?

The taking away of breath

And there it was, silent and sudden, at the edge of the clearing. When you say, "It took my breath away," what you mean is that you took in a breath and held it, not wishing to let the air escape from this magical moment.

He didn't feel an excited explosion of joy and happiness. It was just there, standing there matter of fact and how-are-you good-morning-to-you-too, as if it had always been there and intended to be there for as long as it pleased and go on its way in its time.

No, not an explosion. The joy and happiness from the deer's arrival rose slowly and certainly until it overflowed, as if it had always been there and he could draw from that well from now on, anytime he wanted.

He overflowed with a sense of gratitude — to whom was he grateful? He claimed not to believe in a supernatural being, and yet he needed to thank Some One. Thank the universe? The universe didn't care a flying flamingo about him. Why should he thank the universe?

But gratitude was the emotion he was feeling. He was glad to be alive and in his moment. And so he murmured, "Thank you," to no one in particular, and he could have sworn Some One overheard him and murmured, "You're very welcome, my son."

Step into the time machine and visit last month

(Scratchings found on a piece of paper)

Hello, future.

At 6 a.m. Monday, April 27, 2015, the sky over Dyckesville, Wis., was clear, the air was crisp and cool. How's the weather where and when you are today?

It's hard to believe that we here in 2015 don't realize what is about to take place, but then it's hard to believe that the people in your time have forgotten what we know is important.

Books and old newspapers (and mechanically reproduced sounds and images) are portals to the past. We neglect them at our peril.

So, too, is old technology. There may be something to be studied in that old machine – that 1941 Philco radio, that 1972 Plymouth Barracuda – that holds the key to the next step, something we've forgotten that is better than we replaced it with.

The past holds keys to tomorrow.

But still, all we have is now.

The world as it was when I wrote the words "April 27, 2015" is gone forever. No need to fret (or celebrate) – simply tend to the needs of the moment.

And on we go.