January thaw

Bars of ice surround my muse; together we await the January thaw. Quite to my dismay, the new year has yet to allow much solitude. While my head is full of phrases and snippets, completing a cohesive thought is a struggle. Even a blog entry seems a daunting task. Perhaps it is the head cold I'm fighting (or the meds used to ease it). Perhaps it is the stress of a workplace filled with uncertainty as rumours fly of more impending layoffs. Perhaps it is the quickly filling calendar or the lack of winter snow. Whatever the reason, my mind is a muddle, pacing an icy fence-row. In time it will melt, or crack and shatter with spectacular effect. Freedom and solitude cannot be far away.

Busy Busy Worky Worky

Multi-tasking sucks. If I had my way, I'd dump the concept right in the toilet.

There's several books out over the last few years, and studies dating back even further, about how multi-tasking isn't all it's cracked up to be, makes tasks take longer, burns people out and just isn't efficient or healthy. Yet on we multitask!

Basically, I can't get a damn thing done at work. Every time I open a spread sheet that someone wants done yesterday, I can only get a cell or two entered before the phone rings. Well which do you want done? The incoming availabilty, pricing and order calls? The incoming technical assistance calls? The incoming email orders? The incoming faxed orders? The requests for research and credit? The price quotes? The back-order research project? Or the stupid spreadsheet? Yes, they want them all done and they want them all done simultaneously. Heaven forbid that we get off the incoming phone lines long enough to finish the previous caller's request, let alone so the project that an outside sales rep wanted finished last week. Bitter? You bet. Looking for a different job with less multi-tasking? Always. Waiting to hear my job is outsourced to India and I'm free of at least this particular flavor of idiocy? Priceless.