Are you proud of how many activity balls you can keep in the air as you go about your work day.? The news about multitasking is not good, I’m afraid. The more you multitask the less you get done according to recent studies.  The Institute of Psychiatry at King’s college in London found that trying to do two things at once lowers your IQ by ten points during the time of the distraction. This drop is even more than the drop in IQ experienced by marijuana smokers.

Three areas are effected most. Short term memory becomes poorer because the brain never fullly absorbs what is being presented to the distracted person. In addition, it takes longer to finish two tasks when working on them in tandem than to attend to first one and then the other. And finally, the work you do is of poorer quality.

Let’s face it. We all have to multitask (or switchtask) from time to time. It has become a way of life in the modern world. But let’s try not to make it the preferred way of life. Whenever possible concentrate without distraction of phones rings, email bings, or other things.

If you practice concentrating on one thing at a time, you will get more done, remember better, turn out better work, and as a byproduct you will start asking yourself, “What is that strange sense of peace I feel?”

For more information, go to the book, Organizing Your Day, by Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims.

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