Taken FROM the Blog CALLED Growing Leaders
I
remember becoming acutely aware of students’ multi-tasking abilities in 2005. I
watched my daughter, who was a senior in high school, do her homework while
also enjoying four other inputs—music from her iPod, a television show, her
laptop and her phone, which enabled her to continue an ongoing conversation
with a friend about a boy.
Today,
most of us can’t imagine doing life without multi-tasking. Our calendars are so
full and our expectations so high, we feel we must accomplish two or more tasks
at any given time. In 2007, students from Kansas State University surveyed
themselves and discovered they cram 26.5 hours of activity into every
day—multi-tasking. I think that number is conservative.
Today,
I wonder, what has multi-tasking done to us?
As
busy people, most of us would agree that multi-tasking is helpful. We pick up
our child at school while talking with a friend on our mobile device, all the
while running errands that enable us to cook dinner that evening.
Unfortunately, at the same time, it seems that few people really pay attention
to one thing well. We lack clarity. Multi-tasking seems to make us:
- shallow,
not deep
- fuzzy,
not focused
- distracted,
not aligned
- live
with duplicity, not integrity
What’s Wrong with Multi-Tasking?
Thanks
to social media, our students have grown up multi-tasking, but has all of the
multi-tasking been poor for their health? After some digging I’ve concluded
that multi-tasking is damaging. Apart from the obvious dangers like “texting
while driving,” multi-tasking plays a significant role in the anxiety and
depression levels our students experience. A squirt of dopamine is released
when we accomplish one of the items on our multi-tasking list. It makes us feel
good. We tend to pursue more short-term tasks that give us this dopamine shot,
and soon we’re caught up in quantity over quality. We actually work harder, not
smarter. And we don’t really focus. We assume we’re doing more and better, but
in reality we trade in value for speed and volume.
MIT
neuroscientist Earl
Miller reveals that our brains are “not wired to multitask well . . . when
people think they’re multitasking, they’re actually just switching from one
task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive
cost.”
A study
at the University of London demonstrated that people who multi-task while
performing cognitive tasks experience measurable IQ drops. Believe it or not,
the IQ drops were akin to what you see in those who skip a night of sleep or
who use marijuana. Wow.
Most
of all, doctors tell
us that multi-tasking causes an increase in the production of cortisol, the
stress hormone. When our brain consistently shifts gears, it creates stress and
tires us out, leaving us feeling mentally fatigued. In addition, the barrage of
information is overwhelming. Figuring out what you need to pay attention to and
what you don’t can be down right exhausting.
A Game Plan: Mono-Tasking
I
have a challenge for you. Why not talk this over with your students or kids and
encourage them to look at the data. Then—invite them to trade in “multi-tasking”
for “mono-tasking.” You read that correctly. Mono-tasking has become a lost
art. It means concentrating on one important task, instead of four or five.
It’s giving your best effort to one item—not your mediocre effort to several.
Most importantly, it enables a student to integrate their life. Integration is
taken from the same root word as: “integrity.” It means being one person.
Clear. Focused. On-mission. It’s choosing to shun duplicity and hypocrisy in
favor of authenticity. It’s really all about mindfulness.
Integration
is the smoothest path to overcome stress, and mindfulness is the best path to
take toward integration. Mindfulness has become a buzzword in many circles
today. In layman’s terms, mindfulness is clearing one’s mind of the clutter of
multi-tasking and focusing on the here and now. It can go as far as deep
breathing and meditation, but it can begin by simply pushing “pause” on the
noise and activity of a stressful day. Neuroscientist Moshe Bar, at Harvard
Medical School, tells us our brains switch back and forth from activity
to recovery mode. Our brains need periods of recovery, but rarely get
them. Mindfulness is about consistently choosing to stop our relentless
“juggling acts” (multi-tasking) for a specified amount of time—in order for our
brains to recover. The benefits are tangible. “The American Psychological
Association cites
it as a hopeful strategy for alleviating depression, anxiety and pain.” It’s a step to combat the:
- over-stimulated,
- over-taxed,
- over-connected,
- over-committed,
- overwhelmed
lifestyles
our young have accumulated. “The American Psychological Association tells
us that 34 percent of Americans say their stress has shot up in the last
year.” I believe it’s even more so among our youth.
Making a Trade
So, today, I’m
suggesting one simple step. To trade in multi-tasking for mono-tasking. To
trade in scattered minds for mindfulness. Then, to encourage our students to do
the same thing. Rebel against the inclination of our culture for noise and
clutter. Rebel against the compulsion to be aware of everything all at once and
be mindful. Reject FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and let’s do MONO . . . as in
mono-tasking.http://growingleaders.com/blog/?utm_source=master+list+%2528monthly%252c+weekly%252c+daily%252c+events+%2526+offers%2529&utm_campaign=2ef1af5901-rss_email_campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b8af65516c-2ef1af5901-304519713
No comments:
Post a Comment