Multitasking

By Heather

I'm not sure when it happened. That I turned from a competent multi-tasking woman to a…someone who's not. Somewhere between raising three kids, writing books, keeping house (not well, but still) and doing all the ordinary everyday things, I've changed.

I'm scattered. My short-term memory is history. Kaput. Gone fishing with its buddies, focus and motivation.

Now I'm lucky if I can walk and chew gum at the same time. It takes all my concentration to work on any one task. For example, if I get a phone call—everything must stop so I can focus on what the caller is saying—or I lose track. Don't get me wrong--I still get everything done--it just takes much longer than it used to.

I realized just how bad my focus has become when it was pointed out to me that my voice mail on my cell phone wasn't working. I hadn't noticed. That's not the worse part. When I called AT&T for help, the nice man on the phone (great customer service, btw) told me my voicemail box had been disabled (techno issue) since…wait for it…April.

Yeah. No wonder I wasn't getting any messages with all those missed calls.

So, I'm not altogether sure why this is happening. I blame getting older. And having three kids (nothing saps brain cells faster than kids). But what I want to know is how I get back to my multi-tasking self. Any thoughts? I've already started playing more brain games—word games, specifically. Word searches, Scrabble, crosswords.

Do you think there's any hope for me? Has this happened to any of you?