How often do you find yourself amid one task, only to be pulled away by another, distracting you from your current task? And as you shift your focus, do you find yourself repeatedly distracted by instant messages or new projects, further scattering your concentration?
It has become easier these days to become easily distracted. We joke about “squirrel!” moments and think we can and do “multitasking.” We jump from one thing to the next before completing a task or thinking things through entirely.
Electronics have changed things quite a lot for us over the years. Many don’t recognize or wish to accept that things have changed our mental focus and capacity, from the flashing commercials to the rapid movement of skipping commercials at the speed of light to the “instant” messages we send through our phones. Relationships are often lost because we don’t have time anymore if we don’t fit into the instant world we’re in these days.
I want to discredit the myth of multitasking. Right now, wherever you are, I invite you to pause. Look up and around you. Find an object to your left and focus on it. Then, find an object to your right. Try to focus on both. You might notice a blur in your peripheral vision, but it’s impossible to focus on two things at once truly. It is forcing our brains into double time, going back and forth at faster speeds, doing a little of each thing. What often happens is we don’t complete both things, or we don’t complete one of them well. We’re distracted and pushing ourselves to do more, but in reality, you can’t accomplish both simultaneously, so in the long game, you are putting yourself behind on things. In addition, you often end up inhibiting the brain from fully functioning because you are trying to force it to work and think faster and faster. Welcome to the instant age.
I encourage you to reclaim your focus by slowing down and concentrating. Maybe it’s putting your phone away for 2 hours. Maybe it’s dedicating yourself to one and only one task, not moving on until you're done or ready to fully stop for now and focus on something else. By slowing your thoughts and reducing distractions, even by 1%, you might be surprised at the positive shift in your productivity and mental clarity. Give it a try and see what happens.
