<p><i>To do two things at once is to do neither.</i>--unknown </p> <p>Have you ever had this experience… </p> <p>You're working on a project that requires creativity, such as writing your ezine or designing a marketing campaign, and suddenly the phone rings, jolting you out of deep concentration. Even if you don't answer the phone, it takes a few beats before you can re-anchor into what you were doing before. </p> <p>That time lapse is your "mental CEO" shifting from one task, with a specific goal and set of "rules", to another, with a completely different goal and set of rules. That shift takes time. The more complex the tasks, the longer the shift takes. </p> <p><b><i>What else are you trying to do while reading this article?</i></b> </p> <p>Sure, we <i>can</i> multitask. We might even believe we can do it without losing efficiency. But we would be fooling ourselves. </p> <p>It has been proven in scientific studies that toggling between tasks slows the brain down. In effect, multi-tasking makes us momentarily stupid -- unable to establish priorities, focus or integrate anything new. </p> <p>Have you ever tried to read your email while listening to a teleclass? How about trying to have a serious conversation on your cell phone while driving? </p> <p>Yes? Then you know that neither was done with your full presence or capacity. <b>It's as if you weren't there for half of the time.</b> You neither fully understood the emails nor fully integrated what the teleclass offered. Too little of your consciousness was on driving -- scary -- and you couldn't fully connect in the conversation. </p> <p> <b>We all know that multitasking has real costs. So why do we still do it?</b> </p> <p>It's ingrained in our habits. All the "time saving" devices of our technological age encourage us to be distracted and lose the ability to focus. And that's a significant loss because <b>focus is what brings prosperity. Distraction keeps us from it.</b> </p> <p>Focus means your full attention. Here are five daily practices to attain pinpointed focus and stop multitasking. </p> <p>1. <b>Clear your desk</b> of anything unrelated to your current goal. Things command attention. The less you have before you, the less likely you'll be distracted. </p> <p> </p><p>2. <b>Schedule your time into blocks</b> so that you can focus in on one individual task at a time. Include separate blocks for completing high payoff actions, emailing, working with clients, planning, etc. Then set sacred boundaries around those tasks. Complete one, then move on. </p> <p> </p> <p>3. <b>Do the most important thing first</b>. High payoff actions are the things that will have the biggest positive impact on your success. <b>What will bring you the results you want the most quickly? Put that first, always.</b> </p> <p>4. <b>Take short breaks away from technology</b> between time blocks or tasks. Take a walk around the block, play music, do something physical or creative. This will clear your mind and help your mental CEO recalibrate to the next task. </p> <p>5. <b>Plan for tomorrow. </b>Schedule 1 - 3 high pay off activities for the next business day. </p> <p>Become a master single tasker! </p> <p>Take the next 30 days and replace your multitasking habits with these five daily practices and see how much more you accomplish and with less stress. </p> 2008-08-18T16:44:32Z -18.9605 863 1465 true 12 9785 multitasking-is-out-pinpointed-focus-is-in 11 2008-08-19T19:20:46Z 2008-08-19T19:20:46Z

It has been proven in scientific studies that toggling between tasks slows the brain down. Here are five daily practices to attain pinpointed focus and stop multitasking.

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