Do you work in an office where people routinely eat lunch at their desks while making phone calls while reading e-mail? Multitasking is epidemic, turning us into a nation of distracted chubs who don't even remember what we ate that got us this way. It's time to stop and smell the sandwich.
Merriam-Webster's Colkgiate Dictionary defines multitasking as "the concurrent performance of several jobs by a computer." The operative words here are by a computer. Humans weren't built to do several things at once, although the demands of modern life have forced it upon us. But, although we wear multifunction gadgets practically 24/7 like extra appendages, they can't change the basic wiring of our brains.Remember, just put first things first.Working at home, I constantly battle feelings of being surrounded and overwhelmed by work and personal chores, so I spend my days mostly confined to my office except on my lunch break-and try to ignore the rest of the place. Consequently, my house is usually dusty and needs vacuuming, even though I'm always here.One recent Saturday morning, I tested my multitasking abilities by throwing a load of laundry in the wash, switching on the dishwasher, assembling dinner in the Crock-Pot, whipping a batch of brownies into the oven, recording a movie, and putting color on my hair to process for 45 minutes while I read the newspaper and ate my breakfast.Decisive and deliberate monotasking is all it takes to hop off the merry-go-round and start increasing your efficiency and sleeping better. Do just one thing at a time, and do it well.If you still don't quite embrace the concept, here's another reason to try it my way. Because it takes the brain longer to switch between complex tasks, multitasking may actually cause you to take more time to get several important things done than if you focused on first things first in linear fashion.But when you have bona fide downtime (which never occurs behind die wheel), that doesn't mean you shouldn't make good use of it. While standing in lines, sitting in waiting rooms, riding as a passenger, you can read, write, plan, and think.Many children today are multitasking addicts, which may partially explain the seemingly overnight prevalence of attention deficit disorder and companion medications. Kids get bored if they're not IMing friends while talking on the phone with music and TV blaring in the background while they're supposedly doing homework.Switching between multiple tasks happens in your prefrontal and parietal cortexes. It may only take a fraction of a second, but that time increases with the complexity of the tasks, and those seconds begin to add up. Because the brain releases adrenaline and Cortisol as it juggles, the more often you have to switch, the more stress you feel. Over time, these corrosive hormones begin to wear you down and bring on premature aging. Constant multitasking can also leave you feeling out of control and depressed because you never think you're doing enough.Sometimes, multitasking can even make you downright dangerous. For example, on virtually any road in America, there's some fool tailgating, straying across the lines, braking at nothing, and running stop signs. Pull up alongside and you're sure to see a driver on a cell phone.OK, modern technology helped with five of those eight tasks, but it didn't make me feel exhilarated and it didn't give me a sense of supreme productivity. It wasn't even 8 a.m. and I was ready for a nap.If I just described you and you're feeling righteous because you have a hands-free phone, here's the bad news. Studies show you drive no better with both hands on the wheel. Those little voices in your head are as distracting and slow your reaction time just as if you held a phone.
Remember, just put first things first.
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