Not Even Einstein’s Brain Could!
IF YOU DO THE ONE THING as if it’s the only thing you have to do in your life right now, if you do it like you have no doubt nothing else matters at the moment, if you work on it hardheartedly, fervently, and without thinking about the next crucial task queuing in line, then you’re the most trusted human being there is, and perhaps the only one still living on planet earth!
Many of us master the different kinds of arts: the arts of cooking, the arts of writing, the arts of painting, the arts of decorating, visual arts and so on. Yet a very few of us do fair in trying to master the art of doing one thing at a time. Over a couple of months ago, I drafted a 90-days free trial routine. The aim was to allot time for each one of my (in especially) significant tasks so as to be able to perform them one at a time and effectively. And the results…well, I ain’t the most trusted human being there is. I tried and I saw the difference it made. For the first few weeks of following this routine plan of mine as it was because it was still new and I was curious, I noticed I became more productive and more relaxed.
Despite experiencing such a beautiful 30 days ride on this cloud of synchronization due to single tasking, it was easy for my mind to transgress back to its old habit of stressing out about the other seven things lining up in a queue while I’m not even done with a task at hand. Those successful 30 days of single tasking introduced me to a more stress-free state of mind. However, I have to admit that it also felt like 300 years of being in a foreign country and yet still couldn’t adapt to its customs fully. This is because single tasking is less stimulating than multitasking. Yet the truth of matter is that multitasking is just a fancy word to say unfocused.
We do at times, in especially when performing house chores, attempt to do more than one chore at once. It’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that. But what if that becomes a habit? With other crucial things to do in life including house chores, one way or another, the habit of multitasking will lessen our productivity level and even affect the quality of the results in one or all of our to-do tasks.
OUR BRAIN AND MULTITASKING
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, stimulants enhance the effects of chemicals in the brain. But with increased dopamine released by multitasking, overdosing stimulants can pose potential health risks, including addiction, cardiovascular events, and psychosis.
How does multitasking then work in favor of our own brains? It stimulates our brains, yes, but it makes us take longer to complete tasks. It makes it easy for our brains to work passively and ignore the important details. It affects our memory. And above all, it invariably makes us less productive.
The brain can’t multitask. No way – no how. It can’t keep on switching between the two tasks instead of channeling its complete focus on one task and yet avoid a mediocre job. It prefers single tasking because single tasking lets the mind think deeper, connect more, and think creatively. The mind is an artist, and with a number of canvases holding different color paints inside, it can only let the hand dip the brush in one canvas at the time to create that beautiful harlequin piece of art.
One reasons why you’ll hear many people complain ‘Oh I’m always swamped at work’ or ‘Oh my job is a nightmare’ is because they always, always attempt to perform four 5 minutes tasks at once only to complete all of them in two hours instead of a short 20 to 30 minutes time.
THERE'S ONLY ONE THING TO BE DONE, AND THAT IS THE ONE THING YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO DO RIGHT NOW.
The most important elements of doing one thing at a time and paying all your attention on it until it’s completely done, or until the part of it you wanted to complete for the day is done, is that (1) you will work smarter and not harder, (2) you will keep calm and not produce unnecessary adrenaline and anxiety, (3) you will work at your very own pace and avoid preventable mistakes and disappointments, (4) you will build the better trusted relationships with those that are, directly or indirectly, involved, and (5) you will remain sane, because even in the busiest time of your life, for your mind to keep sane, it needs to entertain one thought at a time.
How would it feel like to complete a task and know by no doubt that it’s effectively done by the time you submit it or move on to the next one? You will feel motivated to outdo yourself in your next task, and then the other, and then the other, all done one at the time, because even the smallest but intellectual brain of Albert Einstein could have only done it one thing at a time.
Confidence, motivation, determination are boosted by focusing on one thing, and one thing only. It doesn’t matter how foreign it feels like to focus on one thing, your mind is better off learning one new thing in an organised foreign territory than being fed too much information all at once in a muddled up library.
Do one thing as if it’s the only thing you have to do in the world, and you will love life.