I got caught out by my phone running out of charge. “Pah” I thought grumpily, “Bloody phone, battery life is getting really short!” But later, when I managed to get it connected to some juice, I realised just how many different apps I had open and running. That runs the battery down fast. And so unnecessary – I mean I wasn’t using them all at the same time, and it’s not like they disappear off my phone if I close them!
About the same time, I also ran out of charge. I had one of those days when I just had no energy, no oomph. I couldn’t focus on anything, or see a task through to completion. My brain felt like it had shut down – I didn’t even have enough energy for my inner critic to have a go, and she’s normally so chatty! All I wanted to do was crawl off to bed, shut down and shut out the world. So, that’s what I did (just for a very little time); a short nap got enough juice back into my system for me to work out what was going on.
I also have a lot of internal ‘apps’. I’ve an app for the kids, and another one for the logistics around their multitudinous activities. I’ve an app for my hubby – and whether he’s away with work or not, which links to the kids and logistics apps. It also links to the catering app. And the house app (boiler on the bloody blink again, no hot water argghh…must call the plumber). There’s a garden app. There’s a whole suite of apps that go with the business, and another whole suite that go with my full time job (and that has A LOT of apps running right now). There’s a health and fitness app, a ‘musing about big questions about life, the universe and everything’ app, a finance app, holiday app…I could go on and on.
Actually, perhaps I should call them ‘atts’ rather than apps, because these are all things that need my attention. And they all take energy. I’m an introvert, so I recharge internally with alone time and space to reflect without external demands. External stimulation, no matter how pleasant, will drain my energy if I don’t get to introvert too. Multi-tasking also drains me – very quickly. Too many apps (atts) open at once.
So time for some battery management – one thing at a time. And I want to trust myself that if I mentally close an app as I move to the next thing, I won’t drop the ball. I can simply re-open the app and pick up where I left off when I need to, because there’s too much to leave it all open and running in the background. No guilt necessary – just focused attention and energy management!
Now, where’s that charger to get my battery back to 100%?!
BTW, if you’re an introvert too and fancy hanging out (quietly) with some fellow internal re-chargers, for gentle sharing, reassurance and nourishing the soul, I’ve a closed Facebook Group called Introvert by Nature. Come knock on the door – if you’re able to answer the secret entry questions, we’ll let you in!
