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The Present Processor
When we feel pressured, we all know the tendency to want to process five emails at once, or, pick up a few pieces of paper at once from the In-box, hoping it will get done faster if we group them. And, we still end up having to do one at a time but we do it under pressure when we are dividing our attention among many.
A recent repeat client who wanted back the feeling of being relaxed with a clear mind, sent me an email the next day that said: “It never stops amazing me how much one day with you can change the way someone feels.” I replied: “It's all about presence and focus and finishing all the loose ends which returns our attention back to this moment. When we are here right now without the loose ends, all is well.”
For me, “all is well“ comes from the willingness to process all the loose ends, one at a time, until it has all been acted on, deleted/purged or the next action decided. Why? Because it has all been unknowingly pulling on our attention.
When we are trying to process information with the “all at once” approachtrying to open five emails at once or picking up a stack of paper to process in a group, we leave the present moment and start splitting our attention in many directions.
I just completed a deep cleaning of my own computer as I prepare to move from a PC to a Mac. Yikes! I know the value of not having loose ends, so I treated this transition as if I was moving and clearing out a house and I didn’t want to take all the stuff to the new house. The interim step was moving everything to Outlook 2010 from another email program and task manager. Tedious would probably sum up the experience. I became the cutting and pasting queen. Thank God for ALT TAB, CTRL C and CRTL V.
After hours of my full undivided attention with myself, I did experience the feeling my client described of a day with me. While my Weekly Reviews do give me the feeling of relaxed focus and clarity, this deeper clearing enhanced that feeling of freedom and relaxation. I was ruthless with each detail and have to admit I found places where I have been on automatic in my Weekly Reviews and not as present as I could have been.
The key to all of it was being present in my processing and, whenever I would leave, returning my focus to the present.
Now…to transfer that present processor ability to learning the Mac.
P.S. Update I am 4 days into my new MacBook Air. The feeling of everything all at once is quite real. And I am doing it one step at a time doing my best to keep returning to neutral. Sending this treat was quite a test. This is my first newsletter using MailChimp.
Martha Invitations
1. If you find yourself randomly opening email after email and not stopping to address each one, start over.
2. When you begin a number of different things simultaneously and have things scattered about, just pull them all together in a stack and do one at a time.
3. Give yourself the gift of being present more and more often.
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