Monotasking - The BO$$ Vogue

Hiya all, welcome back! Nowadays, everyone leads quite busy lives. Even in the lockdown era, we are bombarded with household chores, office/school work, trying to keep up with friends and family....when do we ever have time to finish all our other important tasks like homework and projects?! That's when our complex minds find an easy solution for our "time problem", thereby introducing us to this beautiful conception called (*cue the dramatic music) MULTITASKING. And it's wonderful, it's amazing! We all do it, even I find myself doing it a lot. We walk around while studying, listen to music while doing homework and text with friends during online classes while eating breakfast and sending a pic of what you're eating! But what if I told you that multitasking is actually a curse, it's not a boon....it's not actually healthy for your mind, huh? Scroll down 😉

WHY DO WE DON'T HAVE TIME

Everybody gets an equal 24 hours, then why do some people always lag behind in their work? Research shows that we actually spend 5-6 hrs. screen time daily, which includes our phones, televisions and Zoom/Google Meet ('cause of the current situation). Imagine what we could do if we just took 2hrs. away from our screen time. We could finish our homework/projects, read a book that we wanted to read, try to cook something new and delish or maybe try out an entirely new hobby! In the end, all you're gonna get is a more refreshed, creative and an innovative you😀 We can also try to appoint ourselves screen time, like after homework maybe you can take a 5min YouTube surfing break, or after studying that awful subject you can finally check out that new video everyone's talking about! IF you easily get distracted by those evil yet appealing notifications popping up, just throw your device in a corner (not literally) for some time and then retrieve it back when the job is done, easy peasy!

Monotasking VS Multitasking (FIGHT!)

1.MULTITASKING : There's a myth, that multitasking is productive and efficient, but it's NOT. People do multitasking to fill the emotional gaps within themselves. You got a lot of work? Try to do it together, tick off all those items in that never-ending list. Maybe your work for the day will be finished but your learning and thinking skills will surely get deteriorated as your mind is focusing not on one task, but many. Hence, you won't be able to say that you gave it your best shot, because you didn't. On top of that you will also end up feeling much more tired, physically and mentally. We usually do multitasking as it helps to make a really boring task entertaining and much more alluring to do. Like for example, listening to Party Rock Anthem while doing your math home work is bound to get some sums wrong (and some dance moves 😂). But, it makes the boring task of doing homework SO much more fun!

Now, here comes the geek freak 👨‍🎓- There's a hormone in our body known as Dopamine, which is secreted in some parts of the brain. It can also be called a "reward-hormone" as your body secretes it when you are expecting a reward i.e. completing all your work. Therefore, you are much more entitled to multitask as soon as you see a long list and your brain's like - "HERE COMES THE DOPAMINE!"

2.MONOTASKING : I'm sure some of you would say that monotasking is going to take up loads of my time, well then you need to make time! Put all your attention in completing that one task and then maybe you could get an A+ instead of an A- 😲 We know that monotasking is effective, we just don't actually know that we "know" it, hence we don't implement it. Like when you are on a road trip, you're dancing with those savvy tunes, suddenly you realize you're lost! The first thing that most people will do is turn off that music as their brain now needs focus on finding the actual road. It's okay to take breaks between a colossal and utterly boring task, just don't get distracted. The key to not get distracted DURING BREAKS is to not do anything addictive. Maybe you could do some stretching, physical activity's good for our body and mind, or maybe you could just get out of the room you're studying in for a while and raid the kitchen, the choice's yours 😄 While doing a task, imagine yourself like a horse, with those flaps beside their eyes so that they don't get distracted and stray away from their path. Who knows, you might just end up ticking off more things off of that cruel, cruel list.

Sometimes it may become difficult to monotask, and you might be tempted to multitask, but every habit is difficult....with continuous time and effort, the result would be absolutely stunning. So, I'm bidding you adieu with a very funny yet kinda relatable quote by the comedian Steven Wright - "I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering."