as i walked to work from the gym this morning, i checked my office voicemail, checked 4 email accounts (one work, three personal), replied to several messages, added a few things to my grocery list, and began composing this blog post in my head.

it occurred to me that my grandfather, who, IIRC, walked from his home to work most days (a distance of 2.4 miles, according to google maps), probably just enjoyed the walk. no email, no voicemail, no blogging. it must’ve been nice.

as far as i can tell, the only time i’m not multitasking is during my morning workout. chris, my trainer, tells me to do something (15 reverse incline push-ups, for example), and depending on my level of morning cheeriness, i either inform him of what i think of the exercise or just do it. conversation’s pretty basic – on a good day i’ll happily interject random “braaaaains!” or “hulk SMASH!” or “boo-yah!” (the last usually reserved for finishing supersets with big weight), but mostly it revolves around his weekend, my weekend, movies, ridiculous dc-area shenanigans, and how the bears did. i think the bears are a football team, but i’ll never ask.

once in the office, i’m checking voicemail (again), email (again), reading the newspaper (must do), reviewing a few bulletin boards, and then on to the research and writing of the day. it’s all punctuated by other small tasks, and i doubt i get more than half an hour uninterrupted on any one thing – and that’s on a good day. and the research i can do without ever leaving my desk – cases upon cases at my fingertips through lexis/nexis, busloads of information to sift through at the barest hint of a google, research librarians willing to sift through paper records (undoubtedly assisted by electronic recordskeeping) and email me PDFs of relevant documents – i can amass more information in a day than i could have in a week when i was in college. research digressions are more common – a scan of an OECD event on health care tells me Ron Wyden continues to play in the health reform sandbox, which makes me wonder if he’d be interested in the issues i work on; that raises the question of how close he is with the trial bar, and a quick review of his campaign receipts over the last decade or so tells me it’s likely a waste of time. unfortunately the constant beck and call of minor side-tasks makes me less likely to digest the denser information quickly; gone are the days when i could sequester myself at a carrel in the stacks for hours of uninterrupted reading.

going home involves either reading or knitting on the bus (while continuing to answer the random work emails that filter in); dinner is eaten in front of the telly or at the breakfast room table while checking email or chatting with g about our respective days. it’s all very busy-making, and while i wish i could say “not a moment wasted,” much of it’s just that – filled with nothing.

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as more gadgetry infiltrates our lives (what’s next – a cell phone implant with retinal displays?) and information technology continues to improve, it will get harder and harder to go back to a 2.4 mile walk with nothing but your thoughts for company. as adderall (am i the only one who thinks “addled” at the sight of that drug name?), ritalin, concerta, and other attention-focusing drugs become more widely used among the non-attention deficit disordered, multitasking and the amount of “stuff” we’re supposed to get done in our day will just increase. even the morning workout will become work time, and the walk to the office will be filled with even more minutiae.

and that will just suck.