Apparently, you are not alone! Earlier today, in fact, I was bemoaning to myself the fact that I had so many projects going right now I could hardly see straight. Lo and behold, what did I proceed to stumble across but a recent blog post of Susan Wise Bauer’s about the limits of multitasking!

Now Susan (or should I say “Dr. Bauer” now – she’s earned it!) is one of my favorite bloggers. I’ve read her blog for at least 18 months or more. She doesn’t post so often that it is a chore to keep up, and I love to vicariously follow her on her writing, revising, and publicity adventures, with a few farm-related highlights to keep things interesting. If you don’t already read her blog, I highly recommend it!

As I was reading the list of what she had going on this past week, though, I have to admit that I felt downright queasy on her behalf. She laments the frustration she is having:

I’m finding that my ability to switch fluently from task to task is NOT what it once was. I find that I have an incredible NEED to finish ONE TASK AT A TIME.

Yet, practically speaking, this is impossible. I have to turn from task to task, job to job. And every time I switch duties, it takes me exponentially longer to remember where I was and what I was doing.

Now, I’ve also noticed a marked decrease in my ability to juggle multiple projects and tangents at once. I’ve resorted to carrying a notebook at almost all times, to stave off the alarming tendency I’ve developed to lose track of even very important ideas as I switch from one activity or project to another. Once the ideas are flowing, however, I also struggle at times to pull that “idea having” part of my brain out of the ether in order to be fully present with my family, the way that I would ultimately prefer. I’ve had to set some pretty severe (for me!) limits on my thinking and writing and researching time, in order to allow myself the kind of experience of homeschooling my little ones that I want to have.

I’m younger than Susan Wise Bauer, and I haven’t yet accomplished a fraction of what she has produced in what can only be described as a prolific life, so I’m afraid that my early overload is probably a bad sign!

I could especially relate to her here:

So how do I do this? How do I acknowledge that life is a series of crises, that tasks do not divide neatly into uninterrupted chunks of time, and yet also finish projects which require continuity of thought and practice? And why do I feel this increasing need for continuity of thought, when I used to find it simple to rotate from project to project, subject to subject, class to class, crisis to crisis?

I don’t think there are any easy answers to these questions, but I think this is a frustration than many homeschoolers feel at points in their lives. We start out enthusiastic and ambitious, and begin collecting new projects and activities at a brisk pace. While most of us don’t bite off quite as much as Susan has, many of us will nonetheless find ourselves overextended and over committed, especially if we are attempting to balance work/service ambitions with raising our children.

At some point, I decided that I might be enthusiastic and ambitious, but I’m not going to try to do everything right NOW. I’m trying to find that balance point, that place of challenging myself without being either overwhelmed or underperforming.

I expect that’s a challenge that many of us are facing, but it’s such a relief to know that even the most talented of us struggle with it, too.

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