Make Your Working Day Work for You
By: Sarah K Brandis
Tags: Neuroscience, Psychology, Work, Entrepreneurship, Study

Make Your Working Day Work for You

Dealing with task switching and interruptions, from a Neuroscience Graduate

Photo by Roman Koval from Pexels

When I was an employee, the worst jobs I had were the ones where my boss or line manager would give me new tasks one after the other, without considering that I was trying to focus on previous tasks first.

As a Neuroscience graduate, I knew how bad task switching was for my brain. It was frustrating to know exactly why my energy was haemorrhaging out of me, but not feeling able to stop it, as scared as I was of confrontation with the boss.

My working days were not working for me.

Today as a freelancer, I organise my working days to avoid task switching – but I do incorporate variety, because that’s good for my brain, my body and my soul.

There is a critical difference that, once understood, takes your focus and energy from being wasted to being utilised well.

It’s worth getting clear first on what task switching really is. It can apply to both scrolling through your phone while on a call (A.K.A. multi-tasking), and suddenly changing from doing one job to another, which is what we more commonly think of as task switching.

The term multi-tasking is actually a misnomer. People can’t actually do more than one task at a time. Instead we switch tasks. So the term that is used in the research is “task switching”.

- Susan Weinschenk Ph.D. in Psychology Today

What ever you call it, it’s all bad for your executive function, in other words, your productive and reasoning-based brain activity. Thoughts, planning, problem-solving — it all suffers when we divide our attention.

Variety in your day, on the other hand, can be thought of as taking sensible breaks as and when you reach an appropriate point to wrap up one task and purposefully move on to something else.

Variety is a good thing for most people. If we performed one type of task all day, we would get bored and our mind would wander, making task switching more likely to occur.

A planned break in your day where you get up from your desk and move, or just simply do something different, can be a welcome break for your brain, and can boost your productivity overall.

Research is showing us that we need to take more breaks to stop our creativity and focus from drying up.

Push yourself through too many hours or days of work and your brain starts to push back. Ideas that once flowed easily dry up, and tasks that you should be able to perform quickly become excruciatingly difficult.

- Minda Zetlin in Inc.

Here are a few simple things you can use, whether working from home or an office, to manage your time for better energy, making your day work for you.

Simple Time Blocking

Time block your days and say no to instantly replying to things.

That ‘multi-tasking’ kind of task switching is sneaky. We see a notification on our phone or desktop, and it’s like an unopened Christmas present just calling to us…

I’ve started ignoring DMs until my first coffee break of the day, so I can maximise my early mornings, when I am most creative.

During my coffee break, I indulge in replying to messages, giving my brain a nice little break from the focus of my early morning writing.

Instrumental-only music

Playing some relaxing or uplifting music can be great for your productivity. But did you know how important it is to listen to instrumentals only while writing?

If there are lyrics in your music then it’s like having somebody whispering in your ear while you are trying to work.

It might not feel like it, but on some level your brain is attending to those words, stealing away brain power.

It’s your brain’s equivalent of having too many tabs open on your browser – shut it down and save those songs for your break time.

Don’t force it

If you are forced to task switch due to an interruption or emergency, allow yourself a little break afterwards before returning to your original task.

Switching back is switching twice, and forcing yourself to do that is only going to add to the cognitive demand on your brain, tiring you out.

Be kinder to your brain and it will repay you with prolonged focus.

These tips helped me when I was studying for my Neuroscience exams several years ago now, and I still use them today as a freelance content writer.

I hope that these tips help you too. If you are working in a way that requires quiet focus, then I know it can be tricky. We can’t always control external circumstances, like interruptions or new urgent tasks from our boss.

But we can do the best with what we have, and that all helps.