It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Truthfully, I had to shove everything in the closet and shut the door for a few weeks.  I had so many things going that I was struggling to get anything done. My to-do list was growing by leaps and bounds and I wasn’t able to cross anything off my list. Anybody feel me? Anybody?

I used to think I could multi-task with the best of them. After all, haven’t you heard that women do this well? I not only believed I was the multi-tasking queen, but I had a sash and a tiara all picked out! However, I recently discovered that the idea of effective multi-tasking is actually a MYTH.

Disagree?

Take this challenge: Have a friend time- with a stopwatch- how fast you can say your ABC’s. Write down your time. My guess is that it will take you about 6-8 seconds. Now, have your friend time how fast can you count from 1 to 26. Write it down. Does 4-7 seconds sound about right? Finally, have your friend time how fast you can combine the two tasks while switching between the two (saying your ABC’s and counting to 26): 1-A, 2-B, 3-C, etc. Do that until you finish.

Now look at the time.

Hmmm….

I bet when you add up how long it took you to do both tasks separately it was a less than when you “tried” to do two things at once. For me, it actually took about three times longer to multi-task than to do the two tasks separately.

Surprised? Me too!

Our brains are amazing and we hold a lot of information we can access at any given moment, but the truth is it takes our processor time to switch back and forth between different tasks or thoughts.

The next time you look at your to-do list, keep this exercise in mind and try attacking your list one item at a time. Take the multi-tasking myth of the closet. Besides, research says that when you cross off something off of your to-do list, your brain actually releases dopamine! That keeps the momentum going because crossing things off the list feels great!

Until next time…

Focused on One, Kimberly