Focus, Walk in the Park, Take a Nap

What’s a human being to do?

We evolved a while ago. Before email pings, before smartphones, before PTA meetings competed with business conference calls. Back in the day, we just needed to focus on how to kill the deer in front of our eyes. Then we had to remember where our cave was, so we could drag the deer back to it. If we stored some nuts and berries, we had to remember where.

As we focused on the task at hand, our brain was hardwired to alert us to any imminent danger, such as the growl of a tiger. We did not need to multitask.

Multitasking, anybody?

What do we mean by that?

Is it the ability to watch the Super Bowl on TV while typing out an email to the boss? Or is it the ability to go from scanning our Facebook likes to writing a term paper to responding to our smartphone alert about an email in a span of five minutes?

Define multitasking

It is all of the above. You could try doing two things at the same time. Or you could switch from one thing to the next, and then perhaps another one, in a very short period of time.

Can you do it?

It depends.

You can fairly reasonable do two tasks simultaneously if they involve automatic, rote behavior. Most people can walk and chew gum at the same time.

But if you try to do two or more things simultaneously which require some degree of brain power, especially if the tasks are quite different from each other, you are going to have problems.

What is the problem?

By and large, you can only do one cognitive or mental task at a time. You can do a mental task and a repetitive, automated physical task at the same time, such as walking and talking simultaneously.

However, we usually cannot carry out two or more complex tasks at the same time. It may appear that we are multitasking, but what we are doing is more accurately called task switching. We might be switching between tasks fast enough to make them appear simultaneous. But they are not.

Task switching

This can create problems.

The research of Meyer, Evans and Rubinstein has shed light on this process. They say that “executive control processes” in the brain help us decide when to do certain things, how to do them, and in what sequence.

Stages of switching

These brain control processes have two steps.

“Goal shifting” is the first step. Here you decide that you are going to stop checking your email and listen to what your spouse is trying to tell you.

“Role activation” is the second step, according to the above-mentioned researchers. This makes sense, too. Different skills and rules are involved when you check your email. But when your spouse starts to yell at you, you’d better forget the first set of rules and pull out a whole new behavior pattern and set of rules, if you want to avoid trouble.

So switch tasks already

If only it were that easy.

Every time you switch tasks, you slow down; you lose time. It is only a few tenths of a second: not a big deal if you go from doing laundry to chatting with a friend.

But it is a big deal if you are talking on the phone and driving. A delay in reaction time of a few tenths of a second could kill you.

Other problems

Frequent switching between tasks can make you more prone to distractions.

There can be a loss of productivity of up to 40% in workers who are trying to multitask, or more accurately, switch tasks frequently.

If you do things one at a time, instead of switching back and forth frequently, you tend to do your task faster, and with fewer mistakes. This is especially true if the things you are doing are complex, and mentally challenging.

Walking and talking

Hyman and colleagues published a study in 2009 of people walking while talking on their cell phones. These people ran into other persons more often. The researchers asked someone to dress up in a clown suit and ride by on a unicycle. The people walking by while talking on their phones quite often did not remember the clown, or even notice him.

Attention modes of the brain

The brain has two ways of paying attention: the focused mode and the wandering mode.

Focused mode

This is the state of the network of brain nerve cells when you are focused on doing one specific thing, without any distractions. But there is also a filter system in the brain. It probably evolved to protect us. While we focused on killing a deer, we could not afford to ignore the growl of a nearby tiger. This filter alerted us.

It appears that loud sounds and bright colors and light activate this brain filter. That is why we get distracted these days and lose focus when our phones ping, or social media updates set off the brain’s filter.

Wandering mode

This is the state of our brain network when we are “daydreaming,” or doing nothing in particular, nothing that requires focused attention from us. A walk in the park, or listening to music, having some “down time,” or just plain old “chilling out” will encourage the brain to reset itself and come up with creative ideas.

Conclusion

• Forget multitasking, especially if you are doing complex or important tasks.
• Do things in batches. Set aside blocks of half to one hour, for example, to just check email, or pay bills, or look at social media, and the like.
• Handle your most important tasks first. You have more stores of willpower and focus in the morning.
• Avoid distractions, especially those involving loud sounds and bright light. Flashing screens and pinging phones reduce focus and productivity.
• Focus on each bite while eating. Watching TV while eating can make you overeat. The TV distracts the brain from registering fully how much you have eaten.
• Take a nap. Even ten minutes of napping reduces fatigue and improves cognitive function.
• Music, meditation, silent contemplation: all of them help.

So take a break already

Unplug yourself from everything, and take a real vacation. If you can’t, go for a quiet walk in the park and look at nature.

Your brain will thank you.