HOW MULTITASKING UNDERMINES YOU

With so much to do and so many tools with which to do what needs to be done, multitasking (doing several tasks at the same time) has become automatic –but at what cost?

I was the queen of multitasking at one point in my life.  I was the busy Vice President of a financial institution, had begun a Life Coaching practice on the side, and was singlehandedly caring for two aging parents who needed more and more of my help.  I really believed I had no choice.  And perhaps I didn’t.  I also have no real memory of what I accomplished other than that it was an awful lot.  Maybe if I had saved my many, many “To Do” lists I would remember…  

The Illusion of Getting Things Done  

When things settled down a bit, (one of my parents died, and I took some time to regroup after major surgery), I came across a book called, “THE NOT SO BIG LIFE,” by Sarah Susanka, an English-born, American-based architect and best-selling author.  It changed my life. 

 The following passage is what did it for me: 

“Multitasking gives us the illusion of getting things done.  We’re really eating up vast quantities of time and energy without awareness.  We become terribly efficient and increasingly ineffective.” 

 According to Susanka, efficiency = output and effectiveness = the extent to which something actually works.

Challenging her definitions, I looked up my own…efficiency is maximum production with minimum effort and effectiveness is a successful end result.  Well, there was the rub.  How successful could I really have been if I couldn’t even remember what I had accomplished with all those years of maximum production, doing, doing, doing so many things at once?  

 The Myth of Arrival 

What I did notice is how the time off I was taking (no multitasking involved or necessary) was memorable.  I noticed for the first time how quiet it was when it snowed, and how pine needles can actually feel softer than carpet beneath my feet.  I also was able to come to terms with what Heather Dominick, creator of Business Miracles.com and founder and leader of The Highly Sensitive Entrepreneur movement calls “The myth of arrival.”  The myth of arrival says that no matter how much you get done, there will always be more that needs doing.  There is no end, no arrival, and no place to arrive at, where it will all be done and you can sit, rest, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. 

 We came here to be present and aware of our moments, so we can fully enjoy and appreciate them as the gifts they are…even the one’s we don’t like, because they, too, have a purpose.  We didn’t come here to just rush through our lives as quickly, efficiently, and expediently as possible, wondering where it all went once it’s over.  

I can’t say that I would have done things differently when I was in the stage of my life where I really felt multitasking was not only necessary, but also a Godsend.  I do know that giving up multitasking has made my life much richer and more fulfilling.   

No, I don’t get as much done, and I can live with that.  The only time I multitask now is when I run the dishwasher, washing machine, and the clothes dryer at the same time.  And that’s because the machines are doing the multitasking, not me.  I am not a machine and am thrilled to have learned to stop acting like one. 

 Getting it done without losing yourself  

If you have too much on your plate and too little time, there are things you can do to restore order, enjoy peace, and still get it done.  Schedule your FREE EXPLORATORY SESSION here.  I promise, there will be no hard sell.  I have no personal attachment to the outcome of our conversation beyond your feeling better for our having had it. For more information about living authentically, click here and get your FREE copy of my “GUIDE TO AUTHENTIC LIVING: Ten Things People Who Live Authentically Know And Do…And So Can You.”