ONE TASK Vs MULTITASK

“Do not pursue a life of constant balance. Instead counter-balance your life between sprints of work and constant life to realise your true potential"

Hello Everyone, In this age of super fast pace and fast charging era focusing on a single task is perhaps one of the greatest obstacle faced by us. Among so much of technological distractions this task is becoming exponentially difficult. I have often observed people who are either in their Homes or at work places or at Golf Courses are always trying to do multiple things at the same time. For example- I notice people watching U- Tube videos and simultaneously trying to teach their kids. I also see guys who are constantly writting or checking their E-Mails and parallely imparting disciplinary lessons to their kids. On the golf course, I often notice people who are either replying to their whattsapp messages before their tee-off or checking their e-mail before a tricky put. These countless and visible evidences in the close proximity clearly indicated to me that concentrating on one thing at one time is becoming an everlasting challenge but at what cost ? However, inorder to derive the effective learning a singular focus on one thing is the single most important factor to realise your true potential and achieve success at everything you do.

We often think that completion of multiple tasks at the same time will do good to us. Well it's true for a routine and mundane tasks of everyday. But when you are doing something productive then, it has an opposite effect. Surprisingly over a period of time a very good term came into existence and that is -" MULTITASKING". Let me quickly remind you that from mind’s perspective there is nothing which can be called as multitasking despite the fact that mind itself is engaged in many activities at same time for survival of humans. To me multitasking at best can fit into a definition of doing your routine task satisfactorily. If we look around at our workplaces, we may find best multitasker in personal assistants and personal secretaries. The close look at their daily work often reveal that these are the people or work force who are actually handle sizable amount of daily tasking which are diverse in nature and invariably do it well.

But, if you have a bigger picture in mind for yourself then multi-tasking is not your go to tool. Whenever I am engaged in my core work areas/ projects, I straight way dive-in for a singular focus for a prolonged period or till completion of my project. Most of the time 'Delegation of tasks’ has been perceived and construed as a ' Mutitasking' which is essentially a management of daily affairs in one’s life. I believe that at best it can be referred as a 'Creative Procastination’. For example a working mother has no option but to combine certain activities to complete her daily activities before she head for the work or single parents who have to mandatory toggle themselves between their professional and personal World. But, if you want to realise the higher goal in life then necessarily adopting the concept of singular focus for a prolonged period of time is the way forward to achieve your set professional/ personal Goals. To put it on record, those who make a claim to be good at multitasking are at best moderately productive and unable to break significant barriers. Just to strengthen the point Grubhub CTO Maria Belousova who served as VP of engineering, SVP of technology and previously held a leadership position at Microsoft and Bluefly has categorically said that —- “ I do not believe in multitasking”. For me Laser focus is the go to card and once I develop the sense of urgency for key tasks ,then I block everything else while focusing on them”. For those who intent to read her full interview titled as “ I’m Grubhub CTO Maria Belousova, and This Is How I Work” may visit this link 👉 https://lifehacker.com/im-grubhub-cto-maria-belousova-and-this-is-how-i-work-1819373669 for an inspiring read.

Historically, when we look around, we find that the people who have had the singular focus are the one who have broken the barriers of excellence and created sonic booms in their respective fields. Take an example of - Warren Buffet, John Bogle, Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Narayan Murthy, Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt, Sachin Tendulkar, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Mark Zuckerberg etc.etc. These legendary people are the examples of doing great things by adopting singular focus. it’s beyond debate that those who concentrate on one thing at a time certainly advances in the world. Look around and see that most of the businesses owe their great success to only one thing on which they directed their entire energy, like Apple, Microsoft, GE, PepsiCo and have not ventured into multitasking by choosing different field of work at the same time. Now, you must be wondering as to why I am saying so ??

When we say we are multitasking, what essentially we are doing is switching between tasks back and forth very quickly. Scientifically, it is against the basic tenets of the brain functioning . Brain itself may be doing many tasking but inorder to complete a task well, it need a singular focus. Infact, evidence has proved that our brain can take in millions of bits of information but actually can only process a few dozens per second. Since we have invented machine learning and computing , hence it's safe to presume that we are more powerful than computers but unfortunately still we are not computers. Our mind has not adapted to a parallel processing of information like computing. The end result is that we end up spending all our energy alternating between tasks, instead of focusing on doing one of them well. It is a proven fact that if we continuously ask our brains to switch back and forth between tasks then we are more prone to waste time, make more mistakes and remember less of what we have done in a particular day thereby substantially lower our learnings.

I do belive that technology is great and use it in my daily life to enhance productivity. As long as we are in control of the technology and use it to enhance our daily productivity it's a great boon. But, it is not so great, when it take control of us and zap our mental energy. Just recollect momentarily, how many times the concept of Multitasking hurt our loved ones, especially whenever they are around us. Through our constant "addiction" to certain triggers like constantly checking phones , whatsapping, pushing updates on social media platforms , twitter etc etc are deteriorating the human touch of empathy, compassion and real togetherness . Now ask yourselves ?? Is Multitasking is the biggest killer of creativity and talent realisation ??. Probably -“ Yes”

In order to focus on a task in hand , we need to set certain rules and I am glad to share mine with you. I call them a "Magnetic Compass to Excellence, duly calibrated to my true potential". Remember that most productive people start with a purpose and use it as a compass to navigate around it. You can too try doing few of them, which I have set out below for enhancing the personal Productivity:- 👇

(a). Firstly, I make an effort to create a distraction-free environment around me.

(b) I ask myself where i want to be in 10 years from now and then 5 yr, then 1 yr, then 3 months then 1 month, then, 1 week and finally what is the most important one thing i need to do today to realise my goal.

(c). I start my work / practice session with a ritual i enjoy and make it a point to end it with a self reward.

(d) I take out sometime in the early morning to figure out as to what i want to accomplish for the day and relook at any nagging question or priority to redefine or set-up my work-flow for the day.

(e) I often Bundle my routine task, which I find it as a great idea by alloting a specific time to attend to them and finish them in one go. This way i build my laser focus for an extended period and can maintain work flow for exceptional results. I use certain productive tools to organise my work -flow which I will share with you in due course of my blogging.

(f) I often ask mself- what is the one thing, i can do right now that will make everything else easier or unnecessary. My work -flow will always be pivoted around this fact.

(g) Before I dive into my 4 hour of intense activity , I make an effort to avoid getting into any kind of negative environment or people, inorder to maximize my efficiency. Remember, If you have a growth mindset then there is no need to fear about failures.

(h) I find it as a great idea to convey my point to others in such a manner that their request does not adversely effect my intended one thing or focused task of the day.

(i) I Switch off my phones into silent mode or keep them in a Flight mode to keep my concentration going for a longer period. This will not only help me to achieve a flow in my core task but will also save my time to deal with any unresolved open question or an incidental task.

(j). I like to take an absolute control of my core work for first 4 hours of every morning for ONE THING and submerged in the process of whatever i intend to do. Generally, I do not let anyone interfere with it.

(k) Daily will power is limited. So I do my hardest and most demanding tasks in the morning when my will power and energy are at highest.

I suggest you to try and implement these techniques and see how will they work for enhancing your Productivity in life. You may like to tweek them as per your imminent needs and environment for greater benefits. I would say that - " Stay Focused on a SINGLE-TASK in hand instead of practicing MULTI-TASKING at all times to break barriers, do more in less time and achieve excellence”. For more interesting reads on “ Productivity & Cerebral Happinesss 🧠” check out http://www.simplylearngolf.com

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