Multi-Tasking Can Hurt You

Just when we believe we can handle the craziness of life as a proud member of the gender that has seemingly mastered the art of multi-tasking and as a woman in our midlife who has been around the block a few times, we are told by the latest research that multi-tasking is a myth. What? You mean there is a reason why some of us feel like we live in a constant state of organized chaos? Researchers say multi-tasking is like a mental traffic jam — and they have the data to prove it. They say that humans simply can’t focus on more than one thing at a time. For example, when we attempt to check our phone while writing an email, our IQ decreases by 10 points. That is the equivalent of not sleeping 36 hours. To make matters worse, multi-tasking creates massive amounts of stress and kills brain cells in the prefrontal cortex. It actually interferes with our ability to problem solve effectively. Researchers say they can actually see the brain struggling. Feeling overwhelmed? Throw out the expectation that you can multi-task fifty things at once. And take a deep breath. Here are three effective ways to juggle your to-do list

• Get all of your to do’s in one place. Gather them from all the various places you store them (sticky notes, notebooks, your brain, etc.) and write them down in one place. Once all your to do’s are in one place, group them into projects. Make sure to only use projects that you’re currently working on right now. Things that you’d like to do someday, but aren’t important at the moment should be filed away in a ‘Someday’ folder.

• Spend time every Monday morning organizing and prioritizing your to do list for the upcoming week. Do this in a quiet place where you can concentrate on what’s really important. Go through each of your “Projects” and tag things that need to be done this week with “This Week”. Tag anything super important with “Important”. When you’re done, you will have a big list of things that need to be done this week. Then select about five of them that are tagged with both “This Week” and “Important” and put them in the “Today” list. Repeat this each day, moving a few items from “This week” to “Today”.
• These days we live in a technological jungle. We may find ourselves preparing a meal, while checking our phones for the latest reply from our potential clients and listening to our teens or partner recount their day all at the same time. Facebook and Instagram can be big energy and time suckers. Don’t check your email or phone first thing in the morning until you’ve ticked off at least two important things on your “Today” list. This is vital to making sure you don’t get distracted by what other people deem to be important for you. This will leave you feeling refreshed and empowered. As a wise man once said: “Your inbox is a to-do list that anyone in the world can write to.”
• Don’t forget to do one task at a time if possible. You will be able to focus more on the task at hand and get it done more effectively and quickly than trying to get three tasks done at once.

A scholar once said “To do two things at once is to do neither.” What a relief to think that doing one thing at a time can make you sharper and more productive and get more done!