The Age of Destractability
In our “Age of Destractability”, finishing one task before starting another has become extremely difficult for most busy people. We all seem to live in a time crunch, where getting things done fast has led us into a multi-task mindset. Unfortunately, we try to do this with a brain evolved to be single tracked. Whistling while we work wasn’t too bad, but how challenging it has become to listen to a podcast on our smart phone, while monitoring emails and texts, and drinking coffee, while driving 80 miles an hour.
You don’t have to be Charles Darwin to figure out “we weren’t made that way.” Even though this is an affliction from which I suffer mightily, I have garnered a few tips on how to finish one thing before starting another. Problem is, I didn’t write them down before I checked my Facebook so now I can’t remember most of them. So please, send me your best tips on how to finish one thing before starting another.
4 Tips to Help Stay on Task
1. Tell yourself, “I am now doing one thing and I will finish that one thing before starting another.”
2. Make “FINISH” your new mantra.
3. Write down “I am now….” and do not move on to the next task until you have completed that task.
4. If you have OCD, these instructions will make no sense to you. Your issue is that it takes too long for things to feel finished. If you think you have ADD and you’ve gotten this far into the text without starting something else, you probably don’t have ADD.
Remember the words of E.B. White “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
Thank you for this article. I managed to finish reading it, before giving room for another tab to open in my brain.
I must also say: I like your sense of humor ????.
How do we know that our minds were made to finish one task at a time? The hunter mind is single point oriented but I am not sure that all minds are organized this way, particularly the gatherer mind. I do agree however that our world today has the potential to create a fragmented and distracted mind. Many of the tasks we ask ourselves to do are not natural, and we often expect ourselves to do them for an extended period of time. Evolutionists have said reading a book is not natural. Sitting in an office 8 hours a day in front of a screen is not natural. I believe that their is something to our minds being in flow – that is present and flexible to what it encounters in the world. With the internet perhaps we are just engaging this flow, gatherer mind.
I will however try your tips on staying with one task – even though I am not sure my mind was made entirely to stay on one task. When we want to be effective with our time, it is perhaps a good option. Note: I found your website while avoiding the task at hand. In other words, Researching my own distraction seemed like a worthwhile distraction.