I have to admit … I am one of those people who just cannot divvy up my attention well.  I can multitask within a given area, for instance homeschooling pretty well.  But when I try to cross areas, such as farming and homeschooling or homeschooling and cleaning, I seem to constantly be out of balance.  I’m either all one or all the other, I just can’t seem to find the balance!  Well, I read a great article a couple of weeks ago about how our  concentration is being sabotaged by multitasking! It explained so much to me about why I seem to be less organized and less productive these days.  It explained why I completely identify with this quote from the article:

 

Do two or more things simultaneously, and you’ll do none at full capacity.

 

Montessori teachers already know this as fact.  We protect our children’s uninterrupted work period like we are protecting Fort Knox.  Because we realize how important uninterrupted time is to their ability to concentrate!  Why do we, the adults, think we are exempt from this same distraction problem?  Could this be why we are raising a generation of children labeled “ADD? ”  In “The Child, Society and the World”, Maria Montessori stated:  

“The teacher must recognize the first moment of concentration and must not disturb it. The whole future comes from this moment and so the teacher must be ready for non-interference when it occurs. This is very difficult because the teacher has to interfere at every moment before the children are normalized.”

Montessori saw that concentration was, in fact, the key to the natural development of the child. It became the focus of her subsequent work with teachers.  Montessori trained the teachers to recognize the importance of its occurrence and the degree to which it released the children to work independently and yet in harmony with each other.  She recognized concentration could not be taught or enforced, but that it was, instead, a vital characteristic of human growth and a demonstration that innate mental needs were being satisfied.

As adults we have lost the ability to really concentrate.  Society has imposed on us the idea that the ability to multitask is essential, even vital to success.  With so many companies laying off and employees having to do the work of two or more people, it would seem that multitasking is critical.  But research shows that multitasking is actually leading to less productivity, up to 40% less!   So, I am on a mission to regain the ability to concentrate and really focus on the task at hand.  

One opportunity I saw in our family was creating organization around our daily tasks.  I created a Family Command Center  so everyone can see at a glance, where others are, what each person needs to get done today and to stay on task.  Those things that must get done daily or weekly that are easily ignored or put off to the last second.  This one area has dramatically helped our organization, and given me more time to concentrate on other things, such as creating new works and helping with the boys’ new businesses.  The command center takes the guess work out of what is happening today, what needs to be done, what’s for dinner, etc.  And, I am pretty good at keeping it up to date and organized.  On the occasions that I have not kept it current, we saw the consequences, one big one seemed to be late meals due to lack of planning.  There are so many beautiful command centers out there.  Search Command Center on Pinterest and you will see how many different ideas there are.  Here is the one I created, using primarily stuff I already had (with a few Dollar Store frames added):

With my Family Command Center, I put the forms I printed in picture frames and use a white board marker to write on them.  For the weekly menu plan, I also create paper ones, because I create I have a month of meals planned out.  I keep them in our family organization binder.  This keeps me from just repeating the same old recipes, week after week.  I am including the links to the forms below.  I am going to provide them in Word so you can modify them to fit the needs of your own family!  

One thing I do not have on the wall, but am going to create is a daily calendar that is broken up into hours.  I am going to commit to hitting the top priorities for the day FIRST and allocating the time to do so on the calendar, trying to avoid the other nemesis to productivity… Procrastination!  We have already had a family meeting regarding the importance of protecting each other’s times of concentration.  One request that I still need to work on is how do we know when somebody is on the computer if they are working on just surfing.  Does anyone have any ideas?  

Here are the forms I used in our Family Command Center, feel free to use and modify as needed!

Weekly menu plan

Week at a glance blank

Grocery List

Daily to do list blank

Daily chore chart