My Favourite Part About Myself…

#bloganuary22

It is kind of ironic that the thing I like the most about myself- and which I think is my strongest suit- also happens to be something that often becomes the biggest inconvenience to me. And that is the ability to engross myself completely in whatever I am doing, and making it the sole point of my concentration. This ‘unifocal’ approach eliminates all distractions for the mind, enables you to be thorough with the task at hand, and enhances the quality of your productivity. The results thus produced can never be mediocre or average.

I have found this type of ‘brain-wiring’, so to speak, to be particularly useful- and even essential- in tasks and functions that require precision, accuracy or commitment, and where you can’t afford to be lax with even the minute details.

So, whenever I have set out to find information about anything that I previously knew nothing about, I have been able to do it thoroughly and comprehensively, gathering all the details in a relatively short amount of time. Like, figuring out all the nitty-gritties of giving birth to and raising a child here in Germany, down to all the tedious paperwork, despite having few acquaintances at the time and a very rudimentary knowledge of the German language. The same has been the case when I took up writing and blogging again after a long break.

Thoroughness helps with preparedness, and that in turn reduces the chances of the unexpected being flung your way.

“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.”

George Lucas

There is, however, a downside to this ability (or skill if you’d call it), just like there is to everything else. There are times when you have to handle multiple things at a time. You then have to prioritise; assign each task the amount of time and concentration you are going to expend accordingly. The ability to multitask is just as much of an important asset in your skills set as the ability to unequivocally focus. Multitasking, of course, reduces the attention you give to each separate task, and consequently the quality of each gets compromised a bit. But the quantity of productivity definitely increases- which, in fact, is the whole point of multitasking 🙂

Being unifocal goes directly against multitasking. And that is why, while juggling most tasks on a normal/average day, it becomes a huge inconvenience. With consistent practice (mostly not by choice😀 ), I have managed to instill some balance and a sense of proportion while handling the various things I have to do, but it is still a gruelling struggle.

The ability to multitask seems to come naturally to a lot of people though, and I have always envied such people. I feel, it is a bit like baking and cooking- you can take some liberty with the types and quantities of ingredients while cooking (not a lot, just a little 😀 )- play around with them a bit, omit some, add others. The end product can still be good. But add or reduce something while baking, measure the ingredients wrongly by even just a little bit, or play with the oven time or settings, and you could very well end up bulldozing the whole project (unless you are a master baker or patissier, and are experimenting, and end up making something even better 😀 ).

Being unifocal, and compulsively paying attention to detail, produces great results when you are baking. You try to juggle something else along with it, and you are sure to fail. But if you take that margin with cooking, while you might not be able to get something great, you will still get by and be able to do something else on the side too.

That’s a somewhat silly, and not-quite-point-on comparison, but I hope you get the meaning 🙂 That works only for ordinary folks like me though, going through our everyday lives. No offence to professionals intended (since this will take on wholly new meaning on that scale 🙂