At this very moment I am watching TV, checking my e-mail, Facebooking, reading an article about The Psychology of the Walking Dead, texting, and writing this blog.”
 
You see it everywhere, Ad's for new electronic "fix” touting the capability of using technology to accomplish several things at once. The "skill" of multitasking is a highly sought after attribute that can be found in many job postings and is widely used in the strengths sections of résumés. People pride themselves on being high-performing team players wearing the "I Am a Multitasker" badge loud and proud.
Guess what? It's BS. The human brain is not built to work this way. Recent revelations in brain research tell us that the brain doesn’t (and can't) really do multiple tasks simultaneously, as we once thought. Actually, all we are doing when we claim to multitask is just very quickly bouncing between tasks. Any time we move from answering the phone to texting, emailing or talking to someone, there is a stop/start process that goes on in the brain. 
 
That start-stop-start process is rough on us. Rather than saving time, it costs time (even very small micro seconds), it’s less efficient, we make more mistakes, and over time it can be energy sapping and lead to massive amounts of stress, burnout or depression. In the business world, where concerns about time-management are all the rage, warnings about workplace distractions borne from a multitasking culture are on the rise. Newer research is concluding that workers are taking an average of twenty-five minutes daily to recover from these numerous stop-start intervals, wow!
 
Our human brains were really built to focus. When we try to force ourselves to multitask, we are trying to get our brains to perform a task it cannot do for and we are becoming less efficient in the long run- even though it may feel like we’re “multitasking masters” the moment.
 
So what do we do? How do we break our addiction to this mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously? Like all addictions, it begins with an awareness. This awareness however starts from within. It begins very simply by replacing your multitasking mindset with a different “M” word; Mindfulness. Simply, for the purpose of this article, focusing your awareness on the present moment and on the task at hand. By incorporating mindfulness and paying attention moment by moment to where we are and what we’re doing, and focusing on one task at a time, mindfulness will help you think more clearly, be more efficient and less prone to stress or burnout.
 
Another idea would be for companies to stop using “Must Be Able to Multitask” in job listings and focus on qualities and skills that ARE humanly possible and can increase productivity like drive, motivation, ambition, passion, hustle… you get the idea- and watch your efficiencies rise while stress levels and employee burnout decline.  On the flip side if “Multitasker” is in your resume strengths section, get rid of it or replace it with “magical superpowers” because at least those might exist. When we all learn to embrace Mindfulness with the same vigor as we have for years with Multitasking, I would be excited to see where this journey will take us all personally, professionally, and as a global community.

 Written By Jesse Silva- Leadership Coach
Let these words echo in your mind, each day in as many moments as you can bear, until the day that they could be your life’s last thoughts. On that day you will be faced with a personal reckoning if you are fortunate enough to lie with your conscious mind. In those moments you will seek your regrets, your joyous memories or a buffet of them both.
Are you a disruptor? Do you seek the new, the unique or the novel in an attempt to create art born of emotional labor? Do you struggle against the tide of tedium, the onslaught of what’s always been or even cringe at the status quo? Do you ignore the Jones’ for the trendsetters that they are, wishing and plotting to avoid their home, their cars and possessions and irritated that they even exists?
If not then welcome to the pasture of life and enjoy your time with the sheep or your peers. The only expectation in this comfortable, easy and carefree life is that you’ll pay attention to the average, the merely normal and unambiguous detail of who you are supposed to be, act, think and feel. There’s no need in this place to figure anything out as the map of your path as been drawn, tested and forged in mediocrity. Such mediocrity is your reward and while tasteless, dull and lacking in surprise it is plentiful and easily served as often as you would like.

If that string of thoughts however, nauseates and churns your stomach, then it is not for you. And while you may not know what your life is supposed to be, what to be passionate about or who you want to become, being caught between the mundane and the unknown is an exciting place to be, if you have the right attitude. Be careful that your attitude doesn’t take on frustration in this special place. Be even more leery of complacency as that too will land you dizzily in the pasture amongst the other sheep. Instead, make the choice to get excited. Be “cheerleader, lottery winner, and college frat party” excited. For the place between being lost and repulsed by the norm lies the radically unaccepting. In this very place you are surrounded by disruption, chaos and sparkling innovation of ideas, thoughts and successes which cannot be defined ahead of time. It is the starting block of a race that has no lanes, no competition breathing and sweating next to you, nor a crowed shouting either for or against you. In this place all is possible and nothing ends in failure. It is optimism in its purest form because no action results in loss unless; you quit.
This is the hard path though. It is forged by your own steps and stepping just behind you is the Resistance. The Resistance will beg you to turn around; it will entice you with comfort and support to join it. Remember that if you do, you will simply return to its pasture. To stay true to the new path seek novelty, question everything and accept only that which is a challenge to you. If it is an easy choice between two options; you should feel no other choice, but to seek a third option.