Even if we had more arms, we can’t do it. Image credit: Serena Wong via Pixabay
Do you pride yourself on your ability to multi-task?
The evidence that our brains can’t multi-task is well-documented. Yet, some people believe this ‘skill’ is necessary. The supporting argument is employers want you to manage competing priorities. They want employees who can shift from one project to another without missing a beat.
While that might be true, employers also want efficiency and productivity. They want employees who can adapt, collaborate, persuade, be creative, and manage time. They want few errors.
This urban legend affects us all. Read on to learn more about what multi-tasking is, how it affects you, and how you can kick the habit!
What is multi-tasking?
Whenever we do more than one task at the same time, or in rapid succession, we’re multi-tasking. If we switch from one task to another, we’re attempting to multi-task. Because we’re often doing it fast, we have the illusion that we’re able to do both things without a problem.
We can’t. It’s not a skill. The costs of trying to making it a skill are many.
Current research highlights the negative effects of a multi-tasking habit. They include:
decreased productivity
increased inefficiency
increased distractibility
reduction in grey matter
memory issues
increased stress (due to information overload)
more errors
Based on this information, advocating multi-tasking might not be a good idea. But are we multi-tasking when we switch from one project to another? Are we multi-tasking when we answer a phone and help our kid with homework?
No.
What we’re doing is task-switching.
Benefits of Task-Switching
Imagine you’re driving during a thunderstorm with a friend. Your talking about the movie you watched last night. Clouds have darkened the sky. As the rain pounds against the windshield, it’s becoming difficult to see. Your radio, that was once background noise becomes a distraction, so you turn it off. Lightning strikes something in the distance. Your conversation fades as the sound of thunder startles you. Inside the car, you and your friend are quiet as your eyes scan the area.
Your brain assessed the situation and determined that splitting its focus was a bad idea. All your attention turned to navigating your car through a storm. Your senses are on high alert because you identified a threat in your environment. Threats get our full attention.
Task-switching is our unconscious ability to shift our attention. Our brain is capable of doing this lightning fast especially if the task is easy. The more complex a task, the longer it takes to task-switch. But if we’ve become proficient at the two tasks, the switch happens faster.
Here’s another example. Most of us don’t have to think about walking. Consider for a minute the number of movements that must happen for us to do this task.
After we learn to walk, we don’t have to think about the position of our feet. We don’t worry about shifting our weight or stepping forward. This entire task is automatic.
We can walk, talk, and chew gum because these tasks are automatic.
To show the point further, I started training for a 1/2 marathon. The first thing I noticed was the effort and conscious thought it took to run. Why? I’m training on a gravel road.
Every time my foot strikes the ground, the ground ‘gives’ a little. This is different than running on pavement, a track, or a treadmill. The gravel shifts, there’s mud, and on certain days, snow. Each element forces me to think about how to run through it so that I avoid injury (threat.)
Over time as I become more proficient, the conscious effort required to run on gravel will lessen. (I hope!) The process becomes more automatic and switching between tasks is more seamless.
Task-Switching Gone Wrong
Splitting our attention can lead to serious consequences. Yet, we try to do it all the time.
We can’t drive a car and talk on a phone. We can’t walk or cross a busy street while using our phone to text. These tasks are incompatible because we can’t split our attention between them.
Our brains prefer one task at a time.
If you’d like to see more examples, all you need to do is visit YouTube and search “distracted walking/driving.”
Test Your Task-Switching
Are you curious how you perform when switching tasks?
What’s happening? We’re experiencing residual effects when we go from one task to another. This slows us down. Our brain still stuck in the previous task, hasn’t redirected its attention to the new one. This increases errors and inefficiency.
Switching costs
Let’s say you’re working on a design project, and get pulled away by a phone call. Your brain is still processing design information as you attempt to handle the call. It might take 1 millisecond to switch your attention.
No problem.
You finish your call and return to your project, but your brain is still thinking about the call. This takes a few milliseconds.
Still no problem.
Until you get back into your project, and it all happens again.
When research points to the inefficiency of task-switching, they mean the following:
The interference in accuracy and response time when doing two tasks at the same time, switching between two tasks, or doing tasks in rapid succession
They’re analyzing the time it takes us to focus our attention on the next task. The amount of time might be mere milliseconds, but this adds up with each task-switch. Errors increase, too. You might have noticed that if you took the quiz from early.
6 Examples of Task-switching
Getting dressed and having a conversation
Listening to music while reading
Doing homework and watching TV
Working on a project and having a non-project related conversation
Writing in a second language and thinking in your primary language (or vice versa!)
Researching with several tabs open on your computer while writing an article
How many can you think of? A lot, right?
Cognitive overload and Task-Switching
IOS, also known as Information Overload Syndrome affects millions, if not billions.
Yes, it’s a joke, and that’s not exactly cognitive overload, but it’s close. When we’re inundated with information, it becomes difficult for our brains to process. Working memory can only hold about four chunks of data at a time. Some research indicates it’s plus or minus five. The bottom line is a limited working memory capacity means we can feel overwhelmed.
This is one of the nasty side effects of having access to information 24/7. We act on the information.
For example, you’re working on your project and have your email and Facebook open. Your phone is next to you on vibrate, which it does every time you get a notification. When you receive an email, you hear a ping! Something happens on Facebook. A notification flashes in the corner of your screen.
Each of these demands your attention. You check your email, Facebook, and phone quick, but now that information is swirling in your brain. It’s taking up space that your working memory was using for your project.
When you want to focus on that project, your brain is pondering that last status update you read. Deep thinking can’t happen with a distracted, overwhelmed brain. Concentration needs a distraction-free environment with no noticeable task-switching.
Attentional Control and Task-Switching
Our ability to choose where to focus our attention is attention control. Whatever we choose to ignore also falls under this definition We do this whenever we concentrate for a period of time on one thing. Working memory and attentional control go together like red beans and rice.
Reducing task-switching takes effort. Here are a few ways you can do it while increasing attentional control.
Meditation – Focuses our attention on the breath or other body sensations
Pomodoro technique – Keeps us on task for a specified period of time
Exercise – Increases will power; gives us an energy boost. Focuses our attention for tasks following the exercise
On-boarding a new habit
Because I love talking about habits, you know I have to tie this into ‘multi-tasking’ somehow. That term is forever burned into the brains of many so we’re going to roll with it for this example.
Many of us like to take on much more than we’re able when it comes to changing our habits. The truth is, when we do this we’re setting ourselves up to fail.
Multi-tasking habits looks like this:
Today I’m going to eat healthier, stop drinking beer, not eat any sugar, and go to the gym after work.
You start strong. Your breakfast is a fresh fruit smoothy. Yum! At work, a few unscheduled meetings disrupt your ability to get a project to the next stage. You skip lunch to work on it.
At six o’clock, a few co-workers invite you to the local pub. You figure you’ve earned a beer. You end up staying longer than you planned. As you head to the subway you tell yourself you’ll go tomorrow. What’s one missed workout?
If we start with one small change and repeat it until it becomes automatic, we’ll have better luck. When it becomes automatic it falls into the world of task-switching. As soon as the habit becomes unconscious, adding another small change becomes easier.
Whether we want to call it multi-tasking or task-switching, our brains want to focus on one thing at a time. If we want to increase our efficiency and productivity, we need to follow this rule.
Learn how an endurance challenge like doing 1000 push-ups can increase your productivity
1000 push-ups a day? You got this!
Completing 1000 push-ups in a day isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s an endurance exercise that takes time and patience — much like other endurance activities do.
Today, I’d like you to check out my article on Better Humans. It outlines how I completed the 1000 push-ups challenge, the benefits of endurance challenges, and how to set up your plan, including ‘if, then’ scenarios.
The number one suggestion I can give you is this: Surround yourself with supportive people. Whenever we want to make a change, we need other people to help us. We’re social creatures. On those days when you don’t feel like going nose-to-the-floor, a pep talk from your peeps will motivate you.
The article also discusses how to handle the naysayers. You’ll want them on board or off your boat as soon as possible. If they’re an albatross around your neck, cut them off, and send them swimming. The key word here is ‘boundaries.’
Think of it this way:
Chloro Phil, Dirty Dancing via YouTube
Your endurance challenge doesn’t have to be push-ups. The point is to pick something you’ll commit to doing every day. Visit the challenges page to see three other ideas.
My second suggestion is this: Track your progress. This also keeps you motivated. In the article you’ll see how I did this, and read about the Panda Planner that I use now. Though, I did start tracking my pull-ups on the wall again.
How do endurance activities increase your productivity? You become more consistent in what you’re doing. That consistency trickles into other domains of your life. You get results.
Enjoy the article and be sure to let me know what you decide to do!
5 theories you can use to make your habits ‘sticky’
Image credit: PIRO4D via Pixabay
What does sustainable habit change mean?
Changing our habits is like putting together pieces of a 3D puzzle. We don’t always see how every piece connects to another, but we know that removing one can weaken the puzzle. If we have the right combination of pieces to replace the ones we take out, we can make the puzzle stronger.
New habits are more sustainable when we develop an understanding of:
the habit loop
the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TMC)
Self-determination Theory (SDT)
self-compassion, and
the role willpower plays in change
With the support of our tribe we can make sustainable habit change a reality for everyone.
The Habit Loop
Image credit: The Habit Loop, Ardent Path Coaching & Consulting
In The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg he explains how a group of MIT researchers discovered the loop. They were working with monkey’s and decided to let the monkeys create their own habit.
Sounds strange, right? Usually, researchers teach the monkeys something and then take copious notes. The monkeys learned to reduce costs to get their reward faster through repetition.
It gets better.
Ingrained habits are hard to break, but a part of the prefrontal cortex (infralimbic cortex, or IL) can help. Turning it off, changes behavior. This time they worked with rats.
Now we can enjoy putting their research into action and change our unwanted habits.
What is a habit?
First, let’s get on the same page and define what a habit is. Habits are behaviors we do without thinking. They’re automatic. A few great examples are driving a car, getting dressed, and rockin’ out to ’80s tunes with an air guitar and fake mic. (Just me?)
I can remember the first time I learned to drive a manual transmission. One afternoon, my friends and I decided to take a trip to the mall. We planned the entire route to avoid as many hills (Omaha is hilly) as possible.
Image credit: Jarmoluk via Pixabay
But we couldn’t avoid them all.
Not far from the mall, a stop sign rested atop a giant hill. Okay, truth be told, the hill wasn’t that big, but when you’re 16-years-old driving a stick shift, it was huge.
As sweat beads formed on my forehead, I peered into the review mirror. A string of cars lined up behind mine. My friends, one riding shotgun, and the others in the back snapped their heads around to see what was amiss.
The chanting started.
“You can do this! You can do this!”
My eyes focused on the car in my rearview mirror. It was so close to my back bumper I could have smelled the woman’s perfume had I had my window down. I pressed on the gas and released the clutch. It was a bit like watching a glass fall from a table and hit the floor but in slow motion.
I was on a hill.
When you’re an inexperienced driver, driving a manual transmission car, what happens?
YOU ROLL BACK.
Panic erupted inside my car, followed by, “You can do this! You got this!” My foot hit the break, and by some miracle (or was it a habit?) my other foot found the clutch.
We could see the mall in the distance. It wasn’t that far.
Placing both hands on the wheel, I checked my mirror one more time. The woman had backed away a good twenty or so feet. Behind her, the line of cars had gotten longer. She waved as if to say, “Take your time, it’s okay.”
I got over that hill, and never rolled back again.
The Brain and Habit Formation
Check out this great video about the role the basal ganglia play in our lives.
Video credit: Quantum University via YouTube
When our behaviors become automatic, it’s this part of our brain helping that happen. Not all automatic behaviors are bad. Do you want to have to think about how to put on your shirt every morning?
Breaking bad — habits
I’ve never actually watched the show, but I understand that for some it was a habit. Some of us have a habit of watching too much TV, Netflix, or Hulu. Others check email, instant messaging, and Facebook throughout the day. We know these activities are time vampires, but we do them anyway.
Why can’t we stop?
We aren’t rats who can have our IL interrupted. What are we supposed to do?
Breaking a general bad habit is all about understanding the habit loop.
3 Simple Steps
Here’s an example: You come home from work after a long day. You kick off your shoes, grab a beer, and turn on the TV.
Step 1: What’s the routine? It’s the behavior you’re doing that you want to change.
Step 2: What’s your reward? In our example, it could be the beer, but it also could be watching TV, or a combination of both. You decide to cut beer from your routine. You also consider adding some easy-to-do exercises while, or in place of watching TV.
Step 3: What’s triggering the routine?
Are you bored, exhausted, annoyed, or stressed? Do you need to relax or decompress?
Is it the location?
Is it the time?
Are there other people involved?
What happened before you came home?
It might take a little time to figure out the cue (trigger), so be patient.
Once you do understand what’s happening, it’s time to play with your rewards. This helps you determine what’s at the heart of your craving. Your reward could be a sense of relaxation you have when you drink the beer or watch TV.
Testing new routines
Duhigg suggests testing several routines to figure out which one gives you the reward you need.
In our example, you could:
Drink a glass of water with lemon in your kitchen after you remove your shoes
Drink a glass of juice in your kitchen before watching TV
Drink milk and then read a book
Drink milk and take a 20-minute nap
Walk around your block before you enter your house
Walk the stairs in your house for five-ten minutes right when you arrive home
With each test, you’re trying to see if you feel the same (or better) sense of relaxation. When you find the thing that works, you have your new routine!
Addiction Habits
Some behaviors are more difficult to change than others. It might be easy for you to curb your screen time or change your route to work. Increasing your steps by parking further from an entrance is simple enough.
If a habit has become an addiction, then to change it, a person needs supports. The habit loop isn’t going to help you dig deep into your psyche, but a therapist can.
When you find that person, they might introduce you to this model:
Pre-contemplation: A person in this stage isn’t ready to make a change. They don’t see the negative effects of their behavior. Changing their behavior will have positive effects on their quality of life. They might not understand or appreciate this. The person doesn’t plan to change their behavior soon — defined as the next six months.
Contemplation: At this stage a person sees the pros and cons of changing their behavior. They’re considering doing so soon, but they might still be ambivalent to making a change.
Decision: Preparation or determination are other names for this stage. The person is ready to take action within the next 30 days. They start taking small steps toward their goal. This person believes changing their behavior will lead to healthy outcomes.
Active change: This person has changed their behavior within the past six months. They plan to ‘stay the course.’
Maintenance: A new behavior maintained for six months or more is the marker for this stage. The person works to prevent relapse.
Relapse: This can happen if the person’s temptations override their sense of self-efficacy. When faced with triggers, this person is unable to maintain their behavior change. Self-efficacy is the confidence a person has in their ability to maintain the change.
How long does it take to make a habit sticky?
The short answer is, it depends. Some habits happen fast like certain addictions. Others, good or bad, evolve over time. Various research studies show that bad habits establish faster than good habits. Rewards from ‘bad’ habits tend to be more immediate.
The maintenance stage can last anywhere from six months to five years according to the TMC. We can exit and re-enter this model of behavior change at any stage, but we begin at pre-contemplation.
When you’re attempting to change a behavior, keep this in mind. Not all behaviors become sticky after a few months of dedicated change.
To deal with tempting situations, you can create ‘if, then’ plans. For example,
“If I’m invited to a holiday party, then I’ll eat dinner before going.
“If I’m at a party, then I’ll drink a full glass of water before drinking any alcohol.”
“If I have a head cold and can’t complete my normal workout, then I’ll walk around my house.”
Self-determination Theory and Habit Change
The habit loop and TMC are two pieces of the sustainable habit change puzzle. SDT is a third vital piece.
SDT is concerned with supporting our natural or intrinsic tendencies to behave in effective and healthy ways.
Self-Determination Theory, 2018
SDT includes three important components: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Each affects our intrinsic motivation to do an activity.
Autonomy: We need to have a sense of control in our lives and be “us.”
Competence: We need to experience mastery.
Relatedness: We need other people.
Taking charge of our change process increases our confidence. Our increased confidence helps us feel more competent. Sharing our experiences with others and getting their support feeds into our confidence.
If any of these three elements is missing, then our intrinsic motivation for the task suffers.
Here are a few short articles to read about changing habits.
We all have that little voice in our head that criticizes us when we screw up. Researcher Kristin Neff has a lot to share about how to cope with that rude little bugger.
For us to experience self-compassion, we need to consider the following:
Self-kindness: We recognize and accept that we’re imperfect. We realize that we can’t always get what we want or be who we want to be every moment of our lives. Rather than beat ourselves up for mistakes, we cut ourselves slack.
Common humanity: We recognize that everyone experiences suffering. We’re not special and we’re not the only person who makes mistakes.
Mindfulness: Stop judging your thoughts and emotions. It’s that simple. Really? No, but it’s necessary for us to do this so that we can show self-compassion.
Habit change isn’t about having willpower. Willpower is finite. We can replenish it, but we can’t count on it over the long haul. It’s described as being like a muscle that tires. We usually start our day with a lot of it, but as we make decisions throughout the day, willpower diminishes.
This is easy to see if you have children. In the morning saying ‘no’ when they ask for a piece of chocolate cake for breakfast is a no-brainer. By the time we get home from work we’re tired. They want a treat, or to spend a few hours playing computer games, and we give in to their nagging.
Why? Because we’ve used up a lot of our willpower throughout the work day. Even if we do a little exercise during the day, our willpower is never a full tank like it was after a good night’s sleep.
Willpower is awesome! But, don’t expect it to help you navigate your behavior change. Sustainable habit change takes time. For that, we need systems and processes in place.
The bottom line
Habit change isn’t simple. It takes time. Sometimes longer than we expect.
We need to make the decision to change behavior on our own if we have any hope of making the new habit ‘sticky.’
Rewards can be simple or expensive. It depends on how we want to motive ourselves.
Willpower is unreliable.
We need to love and accept ourselves as we make changes. The road might be bumpy.
I only have two questions for you right now.
What habits are you working to change?
What healthful habits do you want to develop?
If this article is helpful to you, please consider sharing it with others.
Researchers now know that we have a set-point for happiness. Oftentimes it’s compared to weight because it fluctuates. It’s also different for each person.
Before we dig into what contributes to our set-point, we should probably talk about what happiness is and isn’t.
Happiness isn’t…
Making lots of money. According to research, the magic number in the US is about $75,000/year. Basically, it’s enough to take care of our needs, and some of our wants.
Having lots of stuff.
Ignoring our negative feelings and being “happy” all the time.
Comparing ourselves to everyone else who we think is better off. Social media is horrible for contributing to our feelings of being “less than.”
Happiness is…
How good we feel from one day to the next
How satisfied we are with our lives
a journey with ups and downs, and some neutral thrown in for good measure
Image credit: AbsolutVision via Pixabay
What is this magic set-point researchers speak of?
I’m glad you asked!
Here’s how the numbers breakdown (roughly)
50% genetics
10% circumstances
40% our thoughts, actions, and behaviors
Wait, what?
Yes, you read that correctly. We have control over about 40%. We might even be able to control the 10% depending on what those circumstances are.
Here are my questions for you:
What if you could experience more day-to-day happiness?
What if you could influence your set-point?
Would you do it?
Just in case you’re nodding your head, here are five ways scientists at Happify tell us we can do just that!
Savor. The next time you go for a walk and see a beautiful sunset, stop and take it all in. When you’re enjoying a treat, take a minute to appreciate how it smells, the feel of it in your hand (if possible), how it looks, its texture, and its taste. You’ll soon realize that you can savor lots of moments throughout your day.
Express gratitude. Keeping a gratitude journal increases your happiness by about 25%, according to current studies. In fact, a few hours journaling over a 3-week period can lead to positive effects for 6 months or more.
Aspire. Be hopeful. Make realistic goals for yourself, including mini-goals. Check them off one by one. As you see yourself accomplishing them you’ll create a positive feedback loop = more hope, and more feelings of happiness.
Give. It’s not only the receiver who feels good in the exchange. When we give of our time, our money, or anything else, we get a big boost to our happiness level. Check out this post about happy brain chemicals.
Empathize. This involves being able to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. It’s perspective-taking. It’s non-judgmental. Included here are compassion and self-compassion. Compassion is action-oriented. We see someone in need of our help, and we provide it. Self-compassion is recognizing our need to be understood and accepted.
A note on self-compassion
When you feel compelled to allow that voice in your head to speak to you in a way that no other is allowed, here’s what I want you to do. Ask yourself:
What would my best friend say to me right now?
Chances are they’d show you compassion.
Happiness is part science and part art.
How will you increase your happiness tomorrow?
Interested in where those numbers came from? Check out Pursuit of happiness: The architecture of sustainable change by Lyubomirsky, Sheldon & Schkade (2005).
There’s a famous Stanford study about delayed gratification that involved kids and marshmallows. It went something like this:
Researchers guided children one at a time into a room. Inside the room was a table with a marshmallow on it. The researcher told the child that if she waited just 15 minutes, when the researcher returned the child would receive two marshmallows.
Note: Sometimes the reward was a cookie or pretzel. The children had a median age of 4 years, 6 months, so really any of the choices would have attracted their attention!
Some of the children ate the treat straight-up, no chaser. Others tried everything in their power to not eat the treat. They would cover their eyes, sing, and turn away. The point is that some kids distracted themselves and waited.
But not necessarily patiently.
Image credit: Studio Essen via Pixabay CCO Creative Commons
This study popped into my head a few nights ago. As a Christmas gift for our family, we purchased a Hulu subscription.
While I don’t spend time watching TV (no cable for at least 13 years) I do enjoy a little down time via Netflix and Prime, but neither of those has the most recent episodes of Gothem.
And I love watching Gotham.
That’s the problem.
Anyone who has Netflix knows that when a TV show becomes available on Netflix, the entire season is available, but there’s usually a waiting period before this happens. Sometimes the wait is a full year!
What do we do when our favorite show magically appears on Netflix? We binge the entire season the minute it becomes available. We lose sleep just so we can watch our beloved show.
Ok, maybe that’s just me.
Back to Hulu.
The most recent episodes of Gotham are available week-to-week just like shows were when I was a kid. (Back then we had to get up to change the channel. There was no remote. The kids were the remote. High five if you can relate! I remember when my family got cable. That was a big deal.)
When I finished watching Gotham, I felt satisfied. It was a strange feeling. I knew I wouldn’t be able to watch the next episode immediately, but that was okay.
That’s delayed gratification. And, guess what? It felt pretty good.
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