The thought is not uncommon in a day to see or deal with someone who is seemingly juggling two or three different tasks at a time.  They are hurriedly looking from one screen to another or carrying on a conversation and texting someone else. Our world encourages us by providing so many different outlets for our attention. It is no wonder people have a problem focusing their attention, and we present them with many flashy and distracting alternatives.

It is one of the limits of being a human being that we can only hold one thing in our minds at a time, and one thought can dominate our actions, emotions, and productivity at any moment.  The challenge then is to be a single-tasking person in a multitasking world. Here is my effort to convince you to do one thing at a time for the most productive and healthiest life experience.

What Happens In Multitasking

Some of my favorite people are lifelong multitaskers. When you question them on it, they funnily look at you and exclaim loudly, confidently, and even condescendingly, “I need to do this to be productive!” They continue trying to perform two or three tasks at a time.  People operate like performers juggling knives at the circus. They are very skilled, but I would argue, not completing studies at the highest level possible.  Here is the peek behind the illusion.

Nobody is doing more than one thing at a time, and they are merely moving from one task to another very rapidly. Attention shifts from a conversation to a computer screen to a phone in their hand, quickly and seemingly without interruption. But that is the illusion.  Since we can only focus on one thing at a time, as we switch from one thing to another, there is a brief moment of change in our mind between tasks called attentional blink.

This distraction is usually a very brief and almost imperceptible amount of time where you disengage from one thing and engage in another. When we are at our best, this phenomenon is not even noticed, but as we get fatigued during the day, these blips become more of an issue, and regaining focus can be troublesome to impossible.

Multitasking breaks down your ability to focus breaks down as you experience sensory overload. The once fast-moving multitasking machine is now making many mistakes and taking more and more time to refocus on getting different things done.

One at a Time

It makes a lot more sense to move in a pattern of work and thought, which requires you to focus on one thing at a time. As you are participating in or completing a task, be there paying attention to it.  Then when it is complete, move on to the next one. When your whole being is working on one thing, mind, body, and spirit, all of your power is focused on that thing. You will come up with your most creative and influential work, and you will perform the task consistently well.

Also, you will work at a higher level longer and experience less mental fatigue as you have fewer attentional blinks and more concentration on what you are creating. This task is a challenge to most people and contradicts what we have been doing all of our lives. Still, until you consciously give it a try, you will never know how practicing single-tasking will improve the quality of your ability and enjoyment of your life.

Is Multitasking Harmful

There are several behind-the-scenes issues that multitasking can cause in your life experience. The number of things we try to pay attention to become an addiction.  When these stimuli are removed, we are left feeling empty and lost.  As if something is missing.  We have gotten away from using our minds to be creative or “entertain” ourselves. The ability to use our imagination needs to be practiced.  All of the external stimulation turns us into imagination pygmies.

We become bored if we have a moment that is not filled with electronic stimuli from video games, television, computer, or of course, our ever-present phones.  Electronic devices are replacing our ability to be naturally creative and think and solve problems, leading to boring results from our lack of ability to be creative in any situation. Things are not dull; people lack the skills to think appealingly.  That ability is all up to you, and it always has been.

Final Focus

Every experience you encounter has some value from building confidence in solving a complex problem. To contribute to your community, increasing your ability to create wealth in your life. Multitasking will not disappear because we believe we are more intelligent than nature.  But in the end, it is your own ability to be creative and fantastic that is being stunted.  Make a conscious effort to do one thing at a time, give it your complete attention, and see how your life experience is different.

“To do two things at once is to do neither.”-Publilius Syrus

“If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither one.”-Russian proverb

“Efficiency is doing the thing right.  Effectiveness is doing the right thing.”-Peter Drucker

“Success demands a singleness of purpose.”-Vince Lombardi

“Be like a postage stamp —stick to one thing until you get there.”- Josh Billings

“Not everything matters equally, and success isn’t a game won by whoever does the most.  Yet that is exactly how most play it on a daily basis.”-Gary Keller

“Multitasking is the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.” -Unknown