Hey everyone! I hope that you are all doing well, that you’ve been taking care of yourself and are feeling fantastic. It’s hard to believe that in just a few short weeks it will be 2025. You’ll probably hear me say this repeatedly until we hit the new year, but that’s just because I am trying to wrap my head around it! And 2025 is already shaping up to be an exciting year over here, so I’m trying to mentally prepare myself now for all that’s to come and how to navigate it without feeling anxious, as I tend to do.
But as we are winding down 2024, I want to continue to talk about the importance of looking after ourselves during this season of busyness and beyond. There is so much we need to do, so much we could be doing, so much we want to do. But in the midst of all that we are doing and want to do, we cannot neglect the need to not do and also to focus.
As you know, there is a time for everything. If I can go back to gardening for a just moment, there is certainly a time for planting, picking, pruning, weeding, right. And these singular tasks all work together for the good of the garden.
They serve a specific purpose in order that the garden might flourish. And even if you are doing the tasks around the same time, you're not doing them simultaneously.
It’s one step at a time. And in a specific order in some instances. And so it goes in life, right?
If you are trying to do all of the things at the same time, it’s almost guaranteed that you aren’t going to be doing any of the tasks as well as you can. And if we are putting our time and energy out there, it would make the most sense and be most rewarding for us to do the things we both need and want to do to the best of our ability. Which requires some discipline. Because when we are excited, or overwhelmed, or just trying to move on to the next thing, we tend to want to multitask so that we can just bang it all out.
But the truth of the matter is multi-tasking is not effective. In fact, according to the American psychological association in some instances, productivity can decrease by up to 40% by way of multitasking. Folks who multitask are also more prone to more mistakes. And we are already imperfect humans, so we don’t need any help making more mistakes.
Now, you may be thinking that this applies only on a smaller level, like listening to music and reading emails at the same time. May be harmless, but how much more efficient could you be if you trained yourself to get laser-focused on that email without any other noise crowding your mind? If you aren’t used to it, it may be uncomfortable at first, but like anything, you have to train yourself.
So let’s think about multitasking more broadly today. Really just in the vein of doing too much. Because that seems to be a theme around here lately, right? We all want so much and don’t want to miss opportunities or we wanna get on to the next, but that can result in us doing the most and definitely not in a good way.
But, let’s say you have three events to get to a work event, a social event, and an event for your kids. And you are trying to do all of that in the span of say 5 hours. You wanna pop your head in over here and stop past over there before you get to your final destination of the evening. And while you aren’t technically multitasking, you really are. Because how present are you in the first and second events? If you’re anything like me, at the first event, you're watching your time because you have to get to the second event, and on your way to the second event, you’re thinking about what you meant to say at the first event before you left and how much time you can stay at the second before you move to the third event and so on. You see what I mean?
Whether we are talking about hopping around to different tasks at work, attempting to do multiple things at the same time, or trying to squeeze in multiple events in the same time frame, the common theme here is that we really need to free ourselves, free our minds by doing one task, or committing to one thing at a time and not twenty!
Because the reality is, you can do all the things, but you cannot do them all well at the same time. Yes, I know- why not? Why can’t we? Well the same way that we crave the undivided attention of others to build deeper connections with them- so then the tasks that we need to complete, or the goals that we are aiming to achieve require our undivided attention to yield the best results possible.
Let's take a moment then to pause and think about our most important tasks and goals. What’s most important to you on any given day that you need to complete, or get done?
I know for me when I think about it, there are a few tasks and then there are bigger goals- now the bigger goals end up being an issue if they haven’t been broken down into micro goals yet, because then they stay on my list as a thing that I have yet to achieve and when I’m so called working on the goal, nothing seems to be getting done, because I may be all over the place with it, working on it a little in one area and a little in another area. But really, a little here and a little there in no particular order equates to working, but never getting it done.
This form of multitasking will simply have you spinning your wheels. And so even things that would work together to create a favorable result for a common goal end up being competing priorities because you put too much on your plate. You’re at a five course dinner, but you asked to get the first three courses all at once. Not only is that plate not as enjoyable, you lose the taste and the integrity of how it was supposed to be experienced in the first place.
So let’s think about the steps that we need to take in order to complete those tasks or meet our goals, whatever they are. And let’s also think about the way that we desire to show up right now and also moving into the new year. Because we can start getting our energy together now and also begin allocating our time properly for the things we need and want to do in this next season. We want to honor our gifts and our goals by making the time to do them well. Because our output is a reflection of who we really are. So make sure that your output honors you.
And with that, let’s chat about some things that we can do to retrain ourselves and reduce multitasking.
Get your mind right- So getting into a focus flow is like a meditation of sorts. And when you first start meditating, it’s challenging to keep your mind from drifting off in the middle of a session. The same is true when you sit down to complete a task, or focus your attention solely on one thing. It’s a muscle we have to work and build.
But we can prepare ourselves for the experience. If you struggle with focus, expect to drift off a time or two, but don’t let yourself stay there. Even ahead of sitting down to do the work, you wanna give yourself a talking-to. This is what I’m here to accomplish, and I won’t be bound by distraction and when I feel myself drifting I will pull myself back to the task at hand. And with enough practice, you’ll be able to do it,
Commit to completion- And that just means for whatever you set out to do in that period of time. It may not be you actually completing the thing in its entirety. But what it does mean is, don’t pick up another task in the middle of the one you are working on. It breaks the flow. And once the flow is broken, it is hard to get it back.
If you are working on a deep-focus project, do not click over and check your email. If you are playing a game with your child, or having a conversation in person, do not check your phone. There was once a time, in our lifetime if you are my age when there were no cell phones. And the earth still turned. And we still got in contact with people when we needed to. And if its bad news, it doesn’t sound better coming out of a cellphone that you never put down. Our cell phones are most certainly winning the war on focus. If you wanna get something done, put it away. Because your phone allows you to be a perpetual multitasker.
A friend just sent me a clip the other day of a speaker- I wish I had the details right now, but essentially he was saying that even the act of putting your cell face down on the table while you are at dinner with other people is sending the signal of your split focus. Because why does it need to be on the table if you aren’t concerned about what's happening behind the screen?
Anyway, the point is, to stay focused on the sole task or thing in front of you for the allotted time by committing to completion and minimizing distractions.
Lastly, I mentioned a list of important tasks earlier, but you wanna make a list. Prioritize your tasks. What’s most important. What can you take off of your list- what can you say no to? When your priorities are clear, it makes it that much easier to stay focused solely on those things.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Devora Zack today: You can either do one thing well or two things poorly at any given moment.
That’s definitely food for thought y’all. If you have a choice, which do you choose? When you are doing a couple things poorly, you’ll never be more than mediocre at them. And mediocre at best doesn’t sound appealing to me, not when we have a choice and an opportunity to be better than that. I don’t want to be a mediocre parent or spouse because I’m splitting my attention with something else, or a mediocre entrepreneur because I’m not investing the appropriate time. I don’t want to be a mediocre employee either. Because if I’m showing up and giving a place a gazillion hours of myself, my behavior in that role or space is definitely shaping me, and that mediocre energy that we may bring to work because it is a job we don’t care about will 100% bleed over into other areas of our lives.
Multitasking has a huge impact that we may not initially recognize and the result of being successful at it is not a better version of ourselves. So let’s leave it behind y’all and start refocusing on what matters most. And if it matters most to you, it deserves your undivided attention.
Thanks so much for listening today. You can share your feedback with us by sending us a text, the link is in the show notes- you can also email us at timetodefineyourlife@gmail.com, or dm us on Instagram or TikTok @definingyourlife. I can’t wait to chat with you all again next week. Take care until then.
