Uni-tasking.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/22/multitaking-unitasking-aj-jacobs
Our hopscotching brains make us more depressed (it’s harder to focus on the positive), less able to connect with people and form a conscience. And it’s an insane delusion. Multitasking makes us feel efficient, but it actually slows down our thinking. Our brains can’t handle more than one higher cognitive function at a time. We may think we’re multitasking, but in fact we’re switchtasking, toggling between one task and another. The phone, the email, the phone, back to the email. And each time you switch, there’s a few milliseconds of start-up cost. The neurons need time to rev up.
He is trying to give up multi-tasking and instead focus on single tasks. It starts to work for him in the end but it’s difficult to do, of that there’s no doubt. I’m trying, slowly. Though he doesn’t explicit say it, it does link in with the idea of living consciously I think. Of being aware of what you’re doing all the time, making conscious decisions about things and of concentrating on one thing and not concentrating on lots of things!
There’s an article here that’s quite interesting > http://zenhabits.net/wake-up-a-guide-to-living-your-life-consciously/
But it is deceptively simple: Be conscious, and think about, everything you do. Make conscious choices rather than doing things without thinkings. That’s all.
May 23, 2010