July 8, 2018: Multitasking

My weekly Get Your Stuff Together Sunday email series gives you one actionable focus for the week that will make your life a little easier.

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We’re all busy and overloaded. There’s never enough time to do everything we need to, much less to do what we want to. That often leads us to multitasking...and stressing.

Multitasking makes us feel like we’re getting more done, but it actually takes away from our productivity. This week, we’re talking about how multitasking slows you down and stresses you out - it’s also an energy thief, which none of us can afford.

Multitasking is inefficient and unhealthy

Humans are not good at multitasking - we really just end up doing a bunch of tasks poorly. To borrow a quote Sweet Home Alabama, “you can’t ride two horses with one ass.” We’re not machines, so we don’t have the ability to slice up out time in ways that will be the most productive and use both our energy and time wisely. What does this lead to? Stress. Burnout. Exhaustion. Stress eating. Being snippy with your family and friends. Working hard and getting nothing done.

Wait...what was I doing?

You may be able to get away with doing two things at the same time, but neither will get your full attention. Another problem humans (even super women like us) have with multitasking is that we can’t help our minds wandering off when doing mundane tasks. We forget what we were doing. This often requires us to retrace our steps to figure out what we may have missed. So, save the multitasking for low-importance tasks, like talking on the phone and folding clothes or taking a walk and thinking through your meal planning.

Do this instead of multitasking

Time blocking! Instead of an endless to-do list that you multitask your way through or keep moving items into the future on, try creating block of time in which you’ll work on certain tasks. For example: a 1-hour block for straightening up the house, a 2-hour block for meal planning and cooking, a 30-minute block for social media. You can also block by specific tasks, like 2 hours to finish a presentation.

Schedule the blocks into your calendar (with reminders for starting and stopping) and honor those commitments. Work on just that thing you’ve blocked time for. I promise you’ll get through your tasks quicker and better by focusing on just one thing at a time!

Next Sunday, we’ll talk about hydration and why it’s especially important this time of year.

Do you have a friend who could stand to G(her)ST? Feel free to forward this!

I hope you have a wonderful week,

Kelly

Kelly Morgan, Ph.D.

Tsirona - www.tsirona.com

My weekly GYSTS email give you one actionable thing to do for the week that will make you life a little easier. As "they" say, "Fail to plan; plan to fail." Get these emails (and more!) delivered right to your inbox by clicking HERE.