Did You Know?
Did you know that when we think we are concentrating on two difficult things simultaneously, the human brain actually flits from one task to another incredibly rapidly, all within the space of milliseconds. This incessant switching between things drains the batteries, causing problems that brain doctors formally identify within medical journals as ‘task-switching cost.’ Unfortunately, our addiction is not as helpful as we may assume, as it depletes our personal daily energy reserves more than dedicating our full attention to a single chore.
The Popular Modern Myth of Multitasking
Many of us today wear ‘multitasking’ like a golden badge of honor. We answer emails at work whilst focusing on a particularly lengthy telephone conversation that we require to have with our employer, and we stir dinner over a boiling hot pan on the stove. We mistakenly believe that all of these tasks together somehow save us a great deal of time, but according to recent scientific findings, the comforting notion that multitasking is an effective way to boost productivity is completely unreal.
In actuality, you are not completing a number of tasks at precisely the same time; you are switching from one to another in an almost instant fashion, generating an inflated feeling of accomplishment and leaving you feeling utterly anxious and with a large number of things that start but ultimately do not complete. This way of working is also rewarded by our society, as swiftness appears to be more productive than slow dedication. We must learn that working at breakneck speed on a plethora of projects actually achieves nothing.
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Inside Your Brain: What the psychologists see
In terms of human psychology, here’s how researchers analyze people’s compulsion for the bad habit:
Firstly, humans have an inherent craving for novelty and stimulation every few seconds. When your phone signals an incoming message, and you swipe it open, your brain gets a hit of dopamine. This short burst of satisfaction causes the immediate experience of pleasure and reward, making you an addict of the ongoing disruption of your quiet workplace.
Secondly, people nowadays have a subconscious anxiety about not knowing what’s going on with everything around them. Our attention is split as we try to know what’s happening with everything at the same time. Anxiety forces our nerves to constantly be on guard. The stress feels like something productive is being accomplished when it really isn’t. So, by the time the sun goes down, our brain already experiences immense decision fatigue. Health experts also state that split attention greatly contributes to an increase in everyday stress. No one feels peaceful amidst this digital chaos.
The Price of Ever-Present Distraction
Sociologists see how this way of life has changed how we relate to fellow human beings. We give those we love very little of ourselves during meals together. Because of this habit, our closest connections atrophy and die. We can see it in action when parents glance at work emails during simple games with young children. We can feel it in the warm eyes ignored in favor of cold, bright screens among friends. An absent presence, cool and isolating, settles in modern homes. When we lack full attention, we miss the subtle emotional clues we use to relate to those around us.
So the true price of multitasking is a far cry from our corporate offices. We’re happy to substitute shallow, fleeting digital interaction for deep, meaningful human connection each day. This leaves us vacant and alone, even though we hyperconnect. All of us feel that awful lack of emotional intimacy when a person is not fully present with us during a conversation. Thus, empathy is quietly rare because we are unable to really listen.
How Task Switching Impairs Your Thinking
Neurologists examine how the actual structure of our brains enables our highest level of creative problem-solving. Their findings reveal that breakthrough ideas are dependent on a sustained, deep period of mental quiet. Our minds need time to dig through concepts in search of those uniquely creative and beautiful answers. These deep digs demand steady, calm energy flow from our brains. But juggling our tasks shatters this creative process. Instead, you remain completely on the surface of the issue and produce flat, predictable work.
Your brain is not permitted to wander deep within your topic and find its own connections. True creative mastery takes place when your mind has space and time to gently link those wonderfully distant and disparate thoughts. Your most brilliant work is sacrificed by every interrupted train of thought you encounter. You end up with work identical to every other person’s in your industry, and an empty feeling when you compare. True command takes complete abandonment of a frantic and scattered mind.
The Islamic Perspective on Focus and Deliberate Living
Islamic traditions give a very beautiful, time-tested guideline of deep focus within our lives. The Holy Quran perpetually reminds humankind to do everything without exception with intent. Actually, a very highly valued term in daily Muslim worship is ‘Khushu‘. Khushu describes coming to God in a state of calm, undivided concentration.
In order to reach this mental and spiritual state, all worldly worries and distracted thoughts are banished. Additionally, Prophet Muhammad had perfect attention when speaking with his closest friends. He would turn his whole self towards the person speaking to him and attend with complete interest. Islam greatly discourages its believers from acting in a scattershot fashion that wastes time and effort. Scholars state that doing one thing with beauty is much preferred to doing ten tasks with incompetence.
The Arabic word for striving for ultimate quality in our tasks is ‘Iqan’. It is impossible to have Iqan if our attention is darting back and forth over a million subjects. Instead, a Muslim concentrates his attention on the here and now, treating their responsibilities appropriately. This form of spiritual practice shields the human brain from the overwhelming hamster wheel of modern attention. By focusing on one thing at a time, a believer finds true joy and peace in their output.
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Reclaim your energy with the power of monotasking.
We must be very diligent in retraining our brains to embrace the time-honored skill of doing one thing. Monotasking means devoting yourself to one task entirely until you have completed it to the very end. This single change in how we conduct ourselves can bring immediate relief to our nervous systems. Stress goes down because there are no mental inputs distracting our nervous system. You gain peace and satisfaction from providing your complete attention to a worthwhile objective.
Moreover, the quality of your everyday work becomes vastly higher. Therefore, we must construct a solid shield around the time dedicated to deep work. A sensible person disables his noisy mobile notifications before beginning an important task. Extra browser windows are closed in order to ensure a calm, uncluttered visual environment. As a result, the brain enters a sublime state of flow in which our work appears to happen automatically. When we decide to approach tasks more slowly with intense mental effort, we achieve significantly more. Real productivity entails choosing depth and deliberation over hurriedness each and every day.
Some things that will make escaping the multitasking trap easier:
Changing your lifetime habits takes very careful planning and consistent practice every day. First, cluster tasks into small, single blocks of time each afternoon: If you have emails that need answering, only answer emails during one dedicated hour block of time. Second, make the most of the well-known Pomodoro technique to condition yourself to focus for small bursts of time: You work extremely intently for twenty-five-minute periods, followed by five-minute walking breaks between periods.
Third, rid your desk of distracting elements so that the physical environment around you doesn’t command you to shift your focus: Even a small, nearly imperceptible visual prompt can cue your mind that it needs to begin to focus.
Through consistent practice, your mind will become resilient to deadly distractions that so easily bombard us on a daily basis. We create peace and happiness in our lives when we carefully and consciously control our attention:
Our attention is the single greatest resource that we have in our fast, overwhelming world, and it is of paramount importance that we fiercely guard it at all times in order to maintain the most positive and productive mentality. In the end, focused attention is the key to our peaceful and rewarding journeys.
