In the past, multi tasking has been the norm. Many business owners want their employees to handle multiple tasks like they have three heads and six arms at the same time. Many office workers are also used to checking their computers, talking on their mobile phones, passing messages, and talking to their colleagues next door. At first, they are busy, but at last, they are exhausted and haven't really completed any important work.
According to the latest research in brain neuroscience, doing many things at the same time is not really the same time. The brain just quickly switches between different goals, which in the long run not only consumes brain power, but can even harm the brain.
Attention is forced to jump around in a very short period of time, which interferes with concentration and, more importantly, triggers anxiety. In fact, doing one thing at a time is the most efficient method that won't waste time.
Do one thing at a time
A graduate student came to my mindfulness class and one week, he said he almost skipped class because there were 10 reports to hand in that week, and on average, he had to complete at least one or two reports a day. However, he felt unable to finish.
I turned on my computer and saw a pile of data. I felt that each one was very important, and everyone wanted to touch it. It wasn't long before I felt very bored jumping around. Then I went to slide my phone and read Facebook... After an hour or two, I still didn't finish any homework. The student spoke frankly.
Everyone must think it's funny that he chose to do the 11th thing when he couldn't finish 10 things? In fact, many people will do this because when we want to do many things at the same time, we will feel anxious and uneasy, and then there will be uncomfortable feelings in our body. People naturally want to seek joy and avoid suffering, and want to divert their attention.
Many people use smoking, excessive drinking, or even taking drugs to avoid temporarily unaffordable worries. This is a mechanism and a human nature. The more anxious you are, the more unable you are to face reality. Fortunately, it wasn't long before this graduate student suddenly remembered an incident that I mentioned in class. He had a brainstorm, turned on his computer, and created five folders on the desktop, each containing two reports of relevant information. Afterwards, he only opened one folder every day to concentrate on writing the reports inside.
It's amazing. When I only open one folder at a time and find that there are only two reports to do inside, I feel as if I'm not so upset and I'm more attentive when writing reports. As a result, I wrote 10 reports in 5 days, and I still have one more day to come to class!
When he walked into the classroom that day, he couldn't wait to share with me the real experience of practicing one thing at a time during the week.
Doing one thing at a time may seem inefficient, but it can make people focus. In contrast, it is generally believed to be efficient and multitasking at the same time. It feels as if many things have been accomplished, but I do not know how much time I have spent in the anxiety and tension of looking ahead and behind. One thing at a time is an adjustment made after practicing mindfulness. When there are many things to do at hand, many people may switch from one thing to another before they have finished it, and keep worrying: What should I do? What should I do? So many things can't be done, what should I do? Time and thought are spent worrying, and nothing is done well in the end. You can try to choose one of these things and concentrate on it, as if there is only one thing left in the world, and the rest is left unattended for the time being; After this is done, do another one.
For example, it is now the morning, and a meeting is underway, but there is a briefing in the afternoon. Previously, I might have been in a hurry, thinking about the afternoon briefing while holding the meeting, but using mindfulness, I would put aside the afternoon's work and concentrate on the meeting content in front of me.
In my mind, the current meeting is the most important and only thing. After the meeting, I immediately engaged in the preparation of the afternoon briefing, no longer worrying about whether the meeting had been held well or not, but concentrating and devoting myself to preparing the briefing.
In this way, by focusing quickly and calmly on everything in the moment, you will unconsciously accomplish everything. Not only will you have enough time, but the quality of everything will also be improved!
In the face of unexpected situations
Mentality: This is what I should do
Once, I went to TSMC to give a speech and shared with them the concept of "one thing at a time" and mentioned the aforementioned graduate student example. After the speech, a supervisor shared his real experience with me.
Every day when I open my eyes and haven't arrived at the company, I will face many situations. At the end of the day, there are too many temporary events to come one by one. Temporary situations are constantly pouring in, and I must constantly adjust my original priorities, not just do the things on my schedule. The director of TSMC told me.
He is talking about the real situation in the workplace, not as simple as when he was a student. I quite agree with him, and I can also appreciate his situation and practices. Even myself, I face daily emergencies like this. "We go to work every day, and although we have a sense of anticipation about what we need to deal with today, the current social pulse and pace of work are, after all, very different from those of the past 50 years. If we continue to hold a rigid mindset and treat accidents as if others are looking for trouble or lamenting their misfortunes, we will plunge ourselves into a feeling of resentment.".
A business owner once told me that it took him many years to slowly face and accept unexpected situations at work. I changed my mindset and felt that these were the things my boss should do. I am the boss, and I want to solve unexpected problems! Changing the boss into a modern person applies to everyone of us. Perhaps you will say that you can go back a hundred years ago, return to your hometown and farm, and live a life of isolation and few desires. Even so, rural life is faced with the test of unpredictable events, and a wind disaster can swallow up all the efforts of farmers. Even in the simplest agricultural society you think, impermanence poses the same test. The difference is not in the amount of impermanence, but in our attitude towards impermanence.
Actually: Rescheduling, or one thing at a time
So, what should we do in the event of an emergency?
First of all, in terms of mentality, we should face it first, accept it, handle it, and let it go. These four principles are really easy to use because many problems stem from feelings of resistance. Once you remove your resistance, you will actually solve most of the problem.
Back to the example of the TSMC executive. When there is a temporary emergency, after he is emotionally willing to accept it, the next thing he needs to do is stop and take some time to rearrange his priorities. Rescheduling itself is one of the things he needs to do right now, and he just needs to focus on scheduling, which is the current mindfulness.
In fact, rescheduling doesn't take much time, and it may take five minutes to sort things out. This is a five minute period full of awareness and conscious concentration. After the rescheduling task is completed, immediately proceed to the next task on the schedule, and so on. It is still one task at a time.
Use brief moments at work to stabilize your heart
Now that you know how to do it, you should find that sometimes the difficulty of execution comes from emotions when it comes to practical use. At that juncture, high emotions are often the time killers.
Emotions are not easy to be smoothed, what should we do? Traditional meditation methods can make you sit in silence for half an hour, but it may be difficult to free up time and space to do so at work, and you are already overwhelmed by variables. It is recommended that you use the moment of using the toilet or pouring tea to calm yourself down, which only takes a few minutes.
You pour a glass of water, feel the weight of the glass in your hand, and then slowly sip it. Slowly feel the water temperature in your mouth with your lips and tongue, and then swallow it. Then, feel your body, feel the restlessness inside, and take a deep breath. You can return to your seat and continue working.
Don't underestimate these actions or short moments. Drinking water, feeling the temperature of the water, feeling the body, and feeling emotions is still about doing only one thing at a time. Let yourself return to mindfulness and become aware of emotions. There is another, simpler way.
If you are sitting in a conference room and can't go to the bathroom or drink water, try full body awareness from head to toe: blink your eyes and feel the contact between the upper and lower eyelids; Then to the nose, breathe deeply once or twice; Then squeeze your lips and feel the contact between your upper and lower lips;
Then, shrug or relax your shoulders; Again, feel the undulation of your chest or abdomen; Next, feel the sensation of contact between your hips and the chair, and then come down to your feet to feel the sensation of contact between the soles of your feet and the ground. Are both feet on the floor or only one foot on the floor?
From the eyes, nostrils, lips, shoulders, chest, hips, to the soles of the feet, full body awareness can be achieved in only one or two minutes.
Why do you want to do this? "Because your thoughts have been wandering outwards for a while, Zhang San and Li Si are in a state of confusion and idleness. Now, if you focus your thoughts back on your own body's awareness, you will settle in the present moment.". Body awareness can be repeated several times until your heart slowly stabilizes. Live in the moment, one thing at a time. Take a breath, now, it's a new start.