I worked in corporate America for a long time and it amazed me every day when I would get a 'nudge' email asking if I had read my email. You may know the email. The one asking if you had read the email sent 30 minutes prior. Which meant there was something someone needed immediately regardless of what you might be working on in the moment. Those emails.
I'm a scatterbrain (I believe it's now called being ADHD). When I was a kid my dad was constantly saying that stuff would go in one ear and out the other.
Truth? I am easily distracted. I'm not saying that lightly. I'll stop in the middle of peeing to write something down I may need to buy/do/call/make later in the day. I keep a notepad in the car to write things down, which is not the smartest, while driving. In the middle of a sentence I'll stop to mention something else I want to talk about later. When I get a puzzled look from my long-suffering conversation-companion I usually say, "Wha? You aren't in my head with me? You can't hear the cacophony going on in there? It's raucous I tell you!"
I have a hard time settling down on a project. I have millions of thoughts of things I "think" need to be done before I can start. Could that possibly be procrastination? Ha!
I constantly organize my space to better facilitate productivity (nice, huh?). I make a list. I lose the list. I make another list. It's missing things from the previous list. I combine the lists. I lose the list again. Then, when I leave for an errand, I forget the list.
I shuffle papers, moving them from this pile to that pile. Then suddenly decide that a pile HAS to go. Then I notice my plants need watering. Then my shelves need dusting. Then I think how lovely it would look if I staged the shelves differently. Then I have to pee. Where I add to my list.
You see how it is? I mean, really, do you want to be in here with me? No wonder I have such a hard time with my homework from school.
By now an hour has gone by and no work has happened on my project. What's that all about?
So - to say that email is a distraction is like saying pasta with red sauce and homemade meatballs is 'good.'
Now that I no longer work in the corporate milieu I ignore my email from time to time. I don't mean to. I guess because I can I just do. I've been untied of that restraint. It is annoying to friends and family that have emailed just the same.
And, since I AM so distractible, I forget to get to it or forget to reply or forget to read it.
I'm working on it. As I'm working on everything else. Proving that, even at a certain age, I am still a work in progress. When that stops I'll know something bad is about to happen.
