During the last few weeks I’ve been struggling with procrastination. In an effort to get myself moving again, I spent part of the weekend trying to figure out what was keeping me from moving forward, and I realized I was trying to accomplish too many things at one time. And one thing I know for sure is, our brains are not good at multi-tasking. In fact I proved it to myself when my progress recently came to a halt.
As a refresher, here’s some information from last year’s post on multi-tasking.
Research shows that our brains can only focus on one thing at a time. You can probably handle a couple of basic things at one time, like grating cheese and talking to your mom on the phone, but not several things that require concentration.
Experiments that measured brain activity during multitasking have shown several different negative effects. First, regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination are activated, leaving less energy for the areas that are used for learning and remembering. Basically, you are just processing the information. There is little comprehension and you are probably not committing anything to memory. Second (and I think much worse), increased levels of stress related hormones are present during multitasking. Stress related hormones are very hard on the body, so multitasking is unhealthy.
You will have much more success, and a greater sense of control, if you build a clear and manageable to-do list. Then work your way through it, one task at a time. You’ll actually get more done, and more out of what you do finish.
This post helped me get my to-do list under control and moving forward, again, and I hope it will do the same for you.
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Tags: multitasking, procrastination
Beth,
This is fantastic and absolutely the kick in the pants I needed after a week of fighting a really bad head cold and a mound of work. Thanks for taking me back to the basics on this.
Tynisha - Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'm glad it gave you the push you needed. Procrastination is so tough to fight sometimes. I hope you're feeling better
Beth