Our society has brainwashed us to think that multitasking is an ability to be admired and sought after in employees, parents and everyone else you can think of. I think that the more we can do at one time, the more efficient we are. However, studies actually show quite the opposite.
Multitasking is toxic for our brains because it goes against the way they are wired to work. You see, our brains can only fully focus on one thing at a time which means multitasking is not efficient at all and actually makes us produce poor quality output.
The answer instead is singletasking. Dedicating your focus to a single task may require you to retrain yourself but it will produce important benefits that are more than worth the effort.
1. Your focus will improve
Instead of jumping back and forth between tasks, you will be able to focus on the problem with persistence and apply complex thinking. Younger generations particularly will benefit from this change seeing as how they are used to watching TV while texting on their phone and playing games.
2. Your stress will decrease
Doing too many things at one time is stressful for anyone because it requires more energy to track tasks. With singletasking, you have your one task at hand and that is the only thing you are focusing on at the moment so all of your energy can go in one direction.
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3. You will manage your time better
When you are used to multitasking, you tend to let more distractions in which can push back your timeline. With singletasking, you will be able to figure out the most effective ways to use your time because you will have fewer distractions.
4. You will get more done
You may be thinking there is no way you can accomplish more by doing one thing at a time than you can by juggling a multitude of balls but you would be wrong.
Trying to do too many things at once leads to mistakes which force you to stop and correct them. In the time it takes to fix the things that went wrong, you could have just done one thing at a time and got them all done in less time.
So how do you get started with singletasking? Use as few tools as you can to get the job done. By using simple methods and cutting out distractions, you can fully focus on your task and will be less likely to allow anything to cut in. Then simply do less!
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I am not saying be lazy. Continue to work as hard as you always have, just work on one thing at a time. It is like the old saying: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” I am not condoning eating elephants.
But I am saying that the best way to tackle your to-do list is to take it one task at a time. I am sure you will find this new way of life have a profound impact on you and those around you.