3 Ways to Increase Your Concentration at Workplace
By: Darshak Rana
Tags: Personal Development, Mental Health, Self, Self Improvement, Life Lessons

3. Don’t Get Sucked Into Multitasking

There is a myth that multitasking helps us complete many tasks in a short time. But the fact is most of us suck at it.

Switching between tasks distributes our attentional resources of the brain, as a result of which we lose our efficiency to focus on a single task. So, whenever we are involved in a job where we need to use our problem-solving abilities, we must restrict multitasking.

As the Turkish proverb says:

“One arrow does not bring down two birds.”

Likewise, we can’t simultaneously complete different tasks using one brain because we lose our efficiency and productivity.

We can think of it as sunlight. What do you think is more powerful enough to burn a piece of paper?

Scattered sunrays or the ones that are concentrated by a magnifying lens?

We must try to avoid multitasking if we can. Distributing our energy on varied activities is much likely to cause chaos and stress. Besides, the pressure to complete all the tasks kills our creative quotient, and hence our performance compromises.

Having too much to handle than our mental capacity can also weaken our memory. Suppose you are cooking four recipes at one time. There are very high chances that you’ll forget an ingredient or two.

Have you ever felt that while cooking, you can’t figure out if you’ve added the seasonings or not? This scenario is the result of scattered focus and an alarm to stop multitasking.

A research study conducted at Stanford University suggests that multitasking is less productive and fruitful than doing one thing at a time. The researchers also provided evidence that individuals regularly affected by different types of electronic media cannot concentrate, recollect important information or juggle between tasks.

Though we believe that we can multitask with ease, we are subtly killing our attention to detail, creative thinking, and organizational skills.

So, how can we complete all tasks in a shorter time without multitasking?

How you can do it

First of all, get enough rest and sleep well at night, so you don’t rush things the next morning. A calm mind is a secret to 1000x productivity.

If your employer demands you to work like a maniac, learn the art of saying NO. Sometimes, an upfront no is better than doing a lousy job.

If you are overloaded with work, and yet your manager wants you to work on a new project, you can request that you already have plenty on your plate and appreciate it if your colleague could take over the next project.

It would be best to use scheduled planner apps like Todoist, Microsoft, google tasks, etc., to prioritize activities. Listing all the jobs priority wise helps us devote our attention accordingly.

Next, try to respond only high priority emails first. Not all emails need our attention.

Schedule a time for distractions like phone, television, etc. This habit will help you to concentrate on your job better.

Planning your day before it starts gives you room to accommodate any last-minute tasks, or else multitask will suck you in like a black hole. And you’ll come out of it stressed, exhausted, and tired.