Doing Twice as Much as You Should, Half as Well as You Could
Wondering what I’m talking about? It’s multitasking.
Multitasking is chipping away at your concentration one interruption at a time. In recent years, multitasking is promoted as a desired trait in people and often makes it to the job descriptions of many roles.
However, the fact is that humans are not made to multitask at all. We can’t do two things and give equal attention to both of them. Only computers can do that.
A juggler seems to be juggling three balls at once. It looks as if he’s giving equal attention to each of them, at the same time. However, he’s continuously switching between the balls which give us an illusion of multitasking.
At first, he was fascinated by people who claimed to be able to do more than one thing at a time. These people must be really intelligent, he thought.
However, when he studied them, he found the reality to be the opposite. They were beaten by their peers on all sorts of cognitive tasks and are "sucker for irrelevancy." He also added,
"People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand. And even - they’re even terrible at multitasking.
When we ask them to multitask, they’re actually worse at it. So they’re pretty much mental wrecks. (laughter)"
Research has also found that the people who multitask have less density in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region responsible for empathy and cognitive and emotional control.
In essence, the more you multitask, the more you damage your brain.
To get out of this loop, figure out your ONE Thing. Ruthlessly prioritize your life to only focus on the essentials. The fear of not completing our to-do list is the reason behind our multitasking habit.
The solution isn’t to work more. The solution is to chip the list short and only keep what matters. Once you do that, you’ll no longer feel the pressure to do ten different things at one time.
When that pressure is lifted, your focus and creativity also heighten leading to better output in less time.
The Disastrous Effect of Inactivity
Ever since remote work has become the norm, many people have found themselves not leaving their bedrooms. I know people who eat, drink, sleep and work at the same place all day.
The only exercise they get is getting groceries, which thanks to technology, can also be delivered.
Whether they realize it or not, it has grave consequences. Sitting for too long is directly linked to heart disease, obesity, depression, dementia, and cancer. More than that, it also changes certain neurons in the brain, for the worse.
It’s high time for all of us to understand a simple fact - movement is good. It releases endorphins that make us feel better, keeps our hearts healthy, and make our brains work better.
Excessive sitting during work makes us hold our breath as we type on our computers. You can notice this yourself. This leads to lower oxygen in the body and consequence muddy thinking, fatigue, and poor focus.
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