As I sit and write this post on the twenty-third of January. I’m looking back on the last few months and although I think the year 2025 was a bit of a bust. I’m already regaining my stamina from the sickness I’ve been through the last three years.

I realized a few things this last two weeks especially. The lace knitting project revealed that my capacity for sustained focus was waning. With so many things trying to grab our attention daily. I’m always trying to be so productive that I often forget that I do my best work when I’m completely focused on the project in front of me. Now, as I sit here typing this. I refuse to check my e-mail or step outside of the ProWritingAid page to do anything else.

Before everything went haywire for me in 2022, I was on top of everything. My mindset dictated immediate, complete action. During canning or freezing, I worked tirelessly until finished, focusing solely on the task. I do this in every aspect of my life (editing, writing, crafting).

There is a simplicity to this focus. I lost it somehow between having thyroid issues and vitamin deficiencies. I used to think that the ability to “wear blinders” was a good/bad thing, because when I was a young adult everyone was measured by how much you could “multi-task” and how well-rounded they were.

I can hyper-focus on things for days. Sometimes Mr. V makes sure I’m fed and watered. Wish I was joking, but this is the truth about myself sometimes. I would measure myself by the metric of multi-tasking productivity and still felt I was lacking somehow. There is always that one more thing. It kept me up at night thinking of all the things I could accomplish if I didn’t have this silly family and the need to shower.

Science is now backing up the idea that humans are not true multitaskers. We are task switchers, which can cause more mental fatigue and lower output. Single-tasking yields better quality, faster results, and less stress. This little shawl project is changing my life. I have looked at my tasks differently. Not so much my physical stamina anymore, but my mental stamina.

Now I look at a task and ask myself how much mental load it is going to use. This mindset has made a difference in the things I say yes to and how I schedule my time.