multitasking is for suckers
Ahoy there!
For a while I've tried my best to be a monotasker. In a society that seems to reward being able to multitask for the sake of "productivity", do more things at one time, why on god's green earth would I deliberately try to be less efficient?
For some context as to my "why", I was diagnosed with ADHD some years back. I hit this arc of my life where I tried to "take back" my attention span.
In this quest, therapy and other ADHD circles recommended working on my intentionality and mindfulness. Things like meditation, CBT, etc. were common practice to try and help my mind self-regulate a tad.
Around the this time, my attention span was at it's lowest. Using multiple monitors for watching/listening to a youtube video while play a game, playing a game and then getting bored within minutes, doom-scrolling galore. Medication kinda-sorta helped, but it can only do so much.
I came across a video from How to ADHD about this thing called monotasking. It changed the way I viewed multitasking.
If you want the tl;dr, multitasking is actually bullshit. Nobody is actually "doing" to things at once, but are rather rapidly switching from one thing to another. This act makes you actually slower at doing both compared to if you just focused on one thing at a time.
I know a lot of people who will do work while listening to a podcast, but I'm willing to bet that the primary focus was the work and trying to retain anything more than random snippets from the podcast will be limited.
So, I started to take this idea of mono-tasking (or at most duo-tasking if I'm needing a break) to the extreme.
I've reduced my monitors from 2 to 1. I've barred myself from having something else going on in the background whilst playing a video game. Things of that nature.
The point is that if I'm doing something that demands my attention or that I wish to be fully immersed in, I can't then try and add something else on top of it.
Washing dishes while listening to tunes? Fine. Mindlessly strip-mining in Minecraft while watching some comfort show? Also fine. Playing a narrative-driven/atmospheric game whilst listening to comfort show? Nope. Web Crafting while trying to listen to a long-form video? Also nope.
Since trying to de-clutter my attention, I've noticed many positive changes. 1) I'm able to focus a lot easier as I'm not surrounded by distractions. 2) I get immersed in the task/hobby a lot more 3) I get less overstimulated having multiple things running at once (which has the biproduct of being easier to be overstimulated when having multiple monitors for example)
I've done a lot to try and continue on with this lifestyle with, what I think to be the final evolution being, opting to use technology that is really good at one thing and being mindful of what I think I will need and only bringing what I think I will need when leaving the house. My goal is to try and keep exercising mindfulness when I can. Hell even the little "Pirate is X" at the bottom is an exercise in mindfulness as I'm basically being aware of what I'm actively doing or planning to do or have already done that day (sorry to break the magic, no I'm not listening to an album and playing a game whilst writing a blog at the exact same time).
If I'm in a mode where I need a bit more variety, I will duo-task in which I will periodically switch back and forth to a max of two things at a time, it's a bit more committal than pure multitasking as you are actively dedicating a specific block of time to one thing.
So, give it a shot. Do more by doing less (at one time anyway).
Pirate is wearing black joggers and pink tie-dye Linkin Park tee
Pirate is feeling exhausted
Pirate is listening to Warning (album) by Green Day
Pirate is working on building his neocities website
Reply via email: me@absurdpirate.com