Multi-tasking Misunderstood

The upside of being self-employed is you can give yourself the flexibility to do what you love...like watch baseball.

The downside is that your boss has all your own worst qualities. In my case, that means I work a lot and, when in the middle of a project, fret a lot too.

This is why I found myself today at Miller Park, laptop firmly on lap, working through the entire game. I got to see the great parts. I got to see the horrifying parts. I got a lot of work done.

But it wasn't the usual great baseball experience. All those studies that say multi-tasking doesn't work have a point: You can't focus completely on anything, so everything gets the half-assed version of you.

Then again, if it weren't for the chance to multi-task, I would have had to choose between baseball or work...and either way something important to me wouldn't have happened.

I guess it's really a glass-half-full / glass-half-empty thing. Multi-tasking (and baseball) is what you make of it. I'm choosing to see today half-full. I'm not sure they really "won," but the Brewers didn't lose. I had to work, but I got to cheer through 12 innings while I did it.

Works for me.

Comments

[Scotty]

Girl, you know I love you (in a friend, former employee, plutonic, HR compliant way). And no one knows better than I how hard you work and that you are a terrific multitasker.

But...but, if I ever, and I mean ever, see you at a baseball game and you are working...I will launch every peanut shell in my arsenal at you, detain your pc (and blackberry and cell phone - unless it's being used to text your drunk friends in the Terrace Reserve seats who gave a random in the parking lot a beer for a ticket) and berate you with negative comments.

The only work that should be conducted at a ball game is your scorecard or a stubborn peanut. Four to six hours of your life...that's all we're asking for.

While I give you a hard time, it's only because I know it's hard to let go (and you personally know I've struggled with it)...but you HAVE to. That's why it's called the National PASTTIME.

I have said time and again...being at the ballpark -- whether it's my beloved Wrigley, Miller Park, Sox Park, that lame excuse of a hefty bag in Minneapolis, or that warehouse with a swimming pool in Phoenix -- is the one time I can relax, enjoy the nuances of the game and spend time with those I care about and get away.

It's an escape...trust me.

Jeez! DON'T MAKE ME SCOLD YOU AGAIN.

:)

[Curt]

Amen to that. And adieu to Gabe Gross. He deserves better, and I hope he finds it at the Rays.