The Exhausting Illusion Of Multitasking

I used to pride myself on being able to juggle a lot at once. It meant that I was busy all day and I loved it. It was a kind of high, being that busy.

But what it really did was wear me out. Because it isn’t really multitasking. It’s more like doing one thing for a short while, interrupting my focus on that thing and starting something else, doing that over and over, then circling back to the first thing. The problem was that every time I circled back, I’d need time to re-orient myself before re-starting. And this was true for each task I approached like this.

Probably, If I’d tracked the time I spent in effective work and progress vs the time spent stopping and restarting, I wouldn’t be so impressed with myself. There have been job studies looking at similar multitasking at work. It’s surprising how much time and effort is used up on switching and re-orienting.

No wonder I’d fall into bed every night, exhausted.

The other thing that this kind of multitasking does is it doesn’t leave room for thinking about anything I’d rather not think about, because keeping a lot of balls in the air at once takes a lot of mental energy. It often meant I could endlessly put things off until I couldn’t, and then I’d make decisions on the spot that really required time and care.

Eventually, this kind of busy living will catch up on us, and we’ll feel the loss of vital energy its created.

One way to avoid this is to alter our focus – to the quality of our work instead of on the number of tasks completed.

It’s surprisingly hard to do. The only way I’ve found that works is to first face the things I don’t want to think about.

Quote of the Week

Our mind cannot be freed into the present moment while we are caged by the illusion of multitasking.
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Multitasking is a mind killer

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Maryanne Nicholls is a Registered Psychotherapist.  To find out more, gain access to her weekly newsletter, meditations and programs, sign up at www.thejoyofliving.co . 

If you’re interested in the topic of avoiding burnout for people who do too much, you may be interested in checking out my youtube channel.