How to Get Rid of Multitasking?

Note: This article is based on the work of Darius Foroux, who tells us how to stop multitasking.

You might be in a meeting, working on a project, talking to someone on the phone, working out, having dinner, or doing other activities. Even if you are 100% focused on reading this article, you are probably multitasking throughout the day, as most of us do. You think it's okay to be busy, but at the same time, it is well-known that multitasking is inefficient.

In recent years, people have been paying attention to the negative effects of multitasking on the brain. Your performance decreases when you multitask. In addition, in the United States alone, companies waste $650 billion because people can't just simply stop multitasking. For this, why is it so hard to stop doing something that harms us?

I believe that all the negative effects of multitasking are invisible to us. If someone tells you, "Companies lose a lot of money because of multitasking," this won't makes any sense to you, as we read about multitasking and practice it on daily basis and our behavior doesn’t change. However, what if I told you that life is better when you stop doing so many things at the same time?

Think of the following questions:

1. Have you felt anxious before?
2. Do you pick up your phone every 5 minutes?
3. Do you find it hard to focus on one thing at hand?
4. Do you struggle in your relationships because of being absent-minded?
5. Do you struggle at work because of being absent-minded?

If your answer was positive, then you are addicted to multitasking. You shouldn't be distracted all the time or have a tendency to be distracted. It isn’t normal to check your email every 5 minutes, to reply to text messages instantly, or to check the news every 10 minutes, so why do you need all these things anyway? I'm pretty sure that you don’t have a definitive answer.

That's fine since I don’t have an answer either. All the aforementioned examples are taken from my life since I always felt bad and that I was missing something.

For this, I kept thinking:

• Are there any new emails I should reply to?
• Whom should I email now?
• What does X person do?
• Are there any new articles?
• Is there any new news?

Such thoughts haunted my mind 24/7, during a meeting, while eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, working, relaxing, and while doing any other activity during the day because I was so obsessed with multitasking.

The quality of your life will decrease slightly if your life is so full of distractions. However, I believe that you shouldn't be enslaved to anything and that you should be in complete control of your mind, not the other way around.

If you can't get rid of your addiction to multitasking, then your brain will negatively affect your behavior. However, that isn’t your brain's job. I'm a pragmatic person. According to pragmatism, your mind functions only as a problem-solving tool. So, why do you let it control your behavior?

Why should you stop multitasking?

If you're addicted to multitasking, it will be hard for you to stop doing so, as you want a compelling reason to do so. On my behalf, I stopped multitasking because of a simple reason, which is time. As entrepreneur Steve Jobs said, "My favorite things in life don’t cost me any money, and apparently the most valuable resource we all have is time."

You may think that multitasking saves time. However, quite the opposite is true. Every time you switch between tasks, it takes up to 9 minutes to refocus on the main task at hand, and this will cost you a lot of your precious time. Since I don’t want to waste my precious time, I've completely stopped multitasking.

Be fully committed

One of my favorite books on habits is Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, and if you don't know this book, it's a compilation of working systems from many of the greatest minds in history. You can read about the habits of infamous scientists such as Nikola Tesla, former president Benjamin Franklin, the author Jane Austen, Voltaire, Ayn Rand, and over 160 other influencers.

For example, neurologist Freud worked sixteen hours a day, but writer Gertrude Stein could write for no more than thirty minutes, and the common thing for most of the people mentioned in the book is that they managed to find time to work in a distraction-free environment.

Otherwise, it was impossible to get things done, and most of them went on long walks or closed their office door for hours, or had a very strict daily routine. They did these things to think on their own, find peace, or just focus on solving their problems.

When we are fully committed, we tend not to multitask. Because we become very busy with the task at hand, and this is one of the main problems of multitasking, we only do a bunch of stupid things at the same time, but have you ever practiced multitasking in activities that make you happy and excited about it?

I don't feel the need to reach for my phone when I'm having an interesting conversation, when I'm enjoying nature, or when I'm eating a great meal. So if you don’t know what to do other than check your email, news, or social media, here are some ideas:

• Go for a one-hour electronic-devices-free walk.
• Spend the weekend in a cabin without the Internet.
• Try to read during your break instead of watching TV.
• Go fishing.
• Practice your favorite sport.
• Take a nap.
• Write a diary.
• Listen to a full album.
• Start recording your diaries as videos.
• Write a poem for someone you love.
• Do something great.

In conclusion

Be creative. Unlike pointless activities, these activities stimulate your mind, your mind becomes stronger if you practice these things. Treat it as a brain teaser. When having a keen mind, you can practically achieve anything you can think about.

As the famous boxer Muhammad Ali said, "if my mind can conceive my goal, and my heart believes it, then I can achieve it." So your quest of achieving your goals starts with believing in them.