It’s become a staple of the modern world, doing a million things at once, trying to achieve perfection all of them and inevitably accomplishing mediocrity across the board. But we all try and shatter that mould, the fairer sex often with better results. Sophie claims it’s a brain chemistry thing (who am I to argue with a neuroscientist?) - but I think it has more to do with the primeval roles within society for men and women. As a man my singular task is to go and hunt wild bore and bring it back to the cave – and that’s about it. As for women they have to rear the children, straighten up the cave, sew some mammoth skin rugs and so on. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not starting onto some sort of misogynistic diatribe – I’m merely making the point that like all men I’m absolutely shithouse at dividing my time between more then one task.
The reason for this rant about time management is that at the moment the concept has become nothing short of paramount in my mammoth hunting world. Previously I’ve talked a lot about my research trip down to the Caribbean – it went amazingly well, a truly awesome experience and from a work standpoint a roaring success. But contrary to what many believe, once I get home the work isn’t finished – in many ways it is only just beginning. Rough notes and first draft text have to get boiled down, re-written, spruced up and spiced with superlatives to the point that they jump off the page. A big task, an un-sexy task. Wandering through 5-star hotels and island hopping in paradise does have a certain amount of sex appeal, but there isn’t much that’s all that hip about sitting in an office when it’s a beautiful summers day outside.
I think it’s fair to say that you could divide yourself into three spheres of energy (don’t worry this isn’t going to turn into some sort of heart chakra bullshit). Meaning you have an intellectual portion of your life, an emotional portion and a physical. Most often when one portion of life is choc-a-bloc you can retreat into the other and have solace. You know the feeling, when you’ve had a tough day nothing feels better then a walk or a cuddle on the couch. But what happens when all three spheres are full to the brim?
At the moment I’m working on the manuscript for the Caribbean project (all 128 typed written pages of it) so that takes care of the intellectual portion. And I’m also training for a marathon that I run every summer (the brilliant Motatapu off-road Marathon http://www.iconicadventures.co.nz/Motatapu/) so that takes care of the physical side. Plus Soph and I are about to get married so we are madly putting the final details together for our big day – filling my emotional being to the max. Sounds like all sorts of fun and it is – it’s just sort of all happening at once. The book is due on the 29th of February the marathon is a week later on the 8th of March and the wedding is a week after that on the 15th (in Australia).
So I’m getting a crash course on the lost art of multitasking – just today I’ve gone for a training run, emailed our wedding photographer and written about uber-posh accommodations in St. Vincent & the Grenadines - and its 11am. Am I sick of it? Do I want to throw in the towel? Not a chance! Life’s an adventure and this is just another interesting turn on the road! I think it was rather fitting when a friend asked the other day where we wanted to go on a honeymoon, “that’s easy, I just want to go home to bed.” Everyone seemed to think that was quite a funny thing to say – wonder why?
Take it easy out there and I’ll chat to you again soon,
Cheers,
~Scott
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