My Dog Got Me To Focus

By CC1370 | You Must Be This Tall... | 19 Dec 2021

Tonight my rather senior dog decided at 11:30pm that he wanted to go out. This is nothing new of course, I’ve been known to take him at 2am, 3am, etc. He’s old, I’m old…when you gotta go, right? I’m a night owl anyway so I’m always on doggie night shift.

However sometimes his timing is just horrible. He’s gotten me in the middle of big writing projects, while doing photo shoots for my jewelry business and while having dinner. Tonight he decided to begin his nightly rant while I was trying to finish a massive Christmas crafts project. Only a week to go and I was surrounded on my bed with everything from big jars of mod podge and fabric pieces to ribbon and washi tape. Literally, this stuff was all over me. (I’m not the neatest or most organized of crafters out there, but I get it done!)

Anyway, sir barks-a-lot decided it was time to go and began the tirade in the other room. Trying to make sure he didn’t wake our new neighbor’s baby downstairs, I had to try and jump up as best I could without showering my floor with craft supplies. I’m proud to say that I’ve become quite the pro at this and made it out without too much damage.

After getting him all ready in his best and warmest coat, and myself out of my uniform of crafting pjs and into my big, “I can’t put my arms down” jacket, guess who decided he didn’t need to go out but rather, wanted the leftover chicken in the fridge?

Now understandably I wasn’t happy about this. I was on a roll with my project, got up when I didn’t need to and now had to get back into the flow of things. So why am I telling you all of this?

When I go out with him, especially at night, I always have my phone with me in case I need help or run into trouble. When Cujo (not his real name but I’ve dubbed him this) decided to stay in, I had gone back to my room and had accidentally left my phone in my jacket pocket out in the hall. I got right back to work on my project and didn’t even realize the phone, normally fused to my side, wasn’t near me. It wasn’t until hours later after I put everything away for the night when I went to check on something that I noticed it wasn’t in my room. Now granted, next to me was my iPad, laptop, etc, But if you are like me, the phone is your go-to and I never go more than a few minutes without checking it or looking at the notifications.

(Yes, I know there is a new “focus” feature on IOS that is supposed to help with this, but I have a bit of ADD and as long as the phone is near me, I’ll pick it up constantly.)

So I guess what I’m trying to say is, the dog, in his own bizarre and unique senior moment way, got me to work without my vice and taught me that maybe, just maybe, I need to start putting the phone out of reach when I need to get things done! That even just putting it across the room and in silent mode is the trick I’ve needed to truly focus on the task at hand.

I think the best part of this isn’t that the furball has been sleeping since this chicken incident, but rather that I didn’t notice, nor miss the phone while it was gone! I can’t remember the last time I didn’t touch that phone for hours and maybe that is the true lesson here. Put the phone down and pay attention to the life you have going on around you.

Read that book, write that article, play that music, craft your heart out, play with the kids…whatever it is you used to do without the distraction of your phone going off, put the phone away and rediscover the things that made you happy. I personally haven’t done a anything “crafty” in over a year and it was nice to lose myself in something more hands-on while watching holiday movies. I think I see more projects in my future!

So here’s to trying this out more in the coming new year and now if you’ll excuse me, I have about 250 notifications I need to catch up on.

Happy Holidays to All and Cheers to You in 2022!

Behold the Face of Evil