Compartmentalizing

When one's life is filled with turmoil and confusion in many arenas, one tries to compartmentalize so as to be productive, even if just barely.

I am one.

I am working on trying to focus on whatever it is that I'm doing at any given moment instead of thinking about all the other things in my life that would like to occupy my thoughts.

I am failing miserably.  I finally got into a good swing at work today, so busy and wrapped in complex projects that I was able to shut the rest of my brain off, but it would occasionally break through and throw in a random thought about something non-work-related.  In my frenzy to stay focused, I ended up working late without realizing it.

It's like when I made these compartments in which to keep each area of my life, I neglected to give them lids, and so now that they are more full than usual, they are all spilling into each other.

The problem with this is that it makes me utterly useless in so many aspects.  At work, I had a very productive afternoon, but it followed a morning of wandering thoughts.  At home, I have a hard time focusing on any homework at all.  (The school thing is extra difficult because, frankly, no matter what else is going on in my life, I struggle to desire to do school work.)  At night, I have a hard time sleeping, and then I add the thought "Hmm...need to sleep so that I can get up tomorrow."  

This is an open invitation for all parts of my life to get back into their tidy compartments.  Some of them have overlap, so I'll just have to learn to live with that, but if everything else could just stay in its assigned sphere, I'd appreciate it.