Join me inside my head for a few moments, will you?
I have got to go clean up the kitchen.
{Walk to kitchen}
I can’t believe Marlee left her dirty socks in the floor when she took off her shoes.
{Pick up socks and take them to the laundry room}
Shoot— I can’t believe I forgot to take the clothes out of the washer last night and now the smell horrible!
If I have to start it again, I might as well go see if there are any more towels and washcloths upstairs.
{Walk upstairs}
This bathroom is a mess. Miranda’s cabinet has got to be cleaned out.
{Sit down in front of her bathroom cabinet}
Where did she get all this stuff? Oh, here’s her contact lens case.
{Pulling out stuff, creating a mess on the floor}
I must make her eye doctor appointment.
{Walk downstairs to get phone}
I missed a call; let’s see whom it was from.
{Click on my email by accident}
E-mail from Vonda. I have to get this article finished for her.
{Go get computer}
Oh, I haven’t even done my blog post for this weekend!
At the end of the hour (or two) that it’s taken me to run from task to task, here’s the situation:
• My kitchen’s a mess
• The clothes in the washer still stink
• Miranda’s bathroom is now messier than it was to begin with
• No eye appointment has been made
• Have no idea who I missed a call from
• The article is still unfinished
• I still have a blog post to do
• I’m frustrated and overwhelmed!
Can you relate?
I always think I can multitask, but I never get any one thing accomplished when I do.
Look at today’s prescriptions verse. Let steadfastness have its full effect…
steadfast |ˈstedˌfast|
adjective
resolutely or dutifully firm and unwavering
DERIVATIVES
steadfastly adverb
steadfastness noun
ORIGIN Old English stedefæst [standing firm] (see stead , fast 1 ).
We need to be resolute and unwavering in what we do. Now, I realize “resolute” may be a little extreme for washing the dishes, but obviously multitasking does not work for me. I’ve never been one to do anything half way, good or bad. It’s my personality. I need to handle the everyday chores the same way.
“To do two things at once is to do neither,” wisely wrote the Roman philosopher Publilius Syrus in the first century B.C. And modern research is proving him right.
Now for the sciency stuff:
If you’ve read some of my other tips, you know about cortisol—otherwise known as the “fight or flight” hormone, or stress hormone.
We juggle different tasks; our brain perceives it as stress, and produces cortisol. An increased level of Cortisol causes a decrease in the level of serotonin, thus causing depression and anxiety.
In addition, increased cortisol causes:
• An increase in blood pressure
• Chronic fatigue
• Insomnia
• Weight gain
• A drop in immune response leading to viruses and infections
These are awfully negative consequences for doing something we think increases our productivity, when in reality it doesn’t. It takes longer to do two things at once that to focus and get them done one at a time. We can only process one activity at a time, and it takes our brain a few seconds to switch from one activity to another.
For those of you like me, leading a crazy busy life, an article from WebMD offers the following suggestions:
• Mix and match. Pair high-cortical involvement tasks — those that involve judgment — with routine, physical tasks that the cerebellum, the brain’s autopilot, can handle. For example, talk to your mom on the phone while folding laundry.
• Rest your case. If your hectic schedule demands you rise at the crack of dawn, steal an hour from the TV at night. A sleepy brain can’t focus.
• Wean from screens. Resist email, the Internet, texting — anything that’s not essential to the work you’re doing right now.
• Ban boredom. Try to do what you love and what matters most. Organize your life around this principle, and you won’t be tempted away from the task at hand.
I have been using The Pomodoro Technique recently. To put it simply, you set a timer for twenty-five minutes and focus on only one activity until the timer goes off. There is much more to it that you can read if you like in the Pomodoro Technique PDF you can download for free here.
Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
So for today’s tip, join with me in learning to focus and quit running yourself in circles.
I challenge you to get a simple kitchen timer and focus on one thing at a time in increments of twenty-five minutes. Whether it’s laundry, writing, praying, reading, or cleaning, choose one item. Work on it for twenty-five minutes, take a five minutes break, then reset the timer and start again. Do this consistently for just three or four hours one morning and just see how much you’ve accomplished.
I bet you’ll be surprised!
From my heart,
Celeste
