Give It One Hundred Percent

In this article:

• Why multi-tasking doesn't work
• How to increase your focus and enjoy your work more
• How being mindful reduces the pressures of busyness and time
• What it means to truly value your life

One thing at a time

What would happen if we could slow down and focus?  What if we could invest ourselves 100%?

In the (fantastic) movie Green Book,* Viggo Mortensen's character Tony "Lip" Vallelonga shares this advice:

My father used to say, "Whatever you do, do it a hundred percent.  When you work, work.  When you laugh, laugh.  When you eat, eat like it's your last meal."

But for most of us, that would be a different way to operate.  We're so used to multi-tasking and splitting our attention numerous ways.  Even when we think we're concentrating, we may still have music or the TV in the background, we may be distracted by phone calls and email notifications, or we may be giving ourselves a "break" every ten or fifteen minutes to check social media or eat a snack.  We're always rushing ahead to the next thing, and we rarely give ourselves completely to any task.

What might happen if we did?

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The fallacy of multi-tasking

When we go through the day doing so many things, our minds aren't fully engaged with any of them.  We're thinking about all the other tasks we need to do, what that one person said, what that song is on the radio right now, why so-and-so hasn't called or texted us back, or any of a dozen other things.

We may think we excel at multi-tasking, but our brains aren't capable of that.  What's really happening is that our brains are frantically switching back and forth between one task and another, constantly interrupting our train of thought, actually destroying our ability to focus for more than a tiny period of time.

Researchers at Stanford University proved that multi-tasking is less productive than doing one thing at a time.  That's because the constant switching from one task to another takes more energy, so even simple tasks take longer than they should.  When we're bombarded by multiple streams of information, we start experiencing cognitive gaps, which keeps us from organizing our thoughts, filtering out irrelevant ideas, and recalling important information.

Your own experience of multi-tasking may have shown that it makes you more frustrated and forgetful, anxious, irritable, and impatient.  Learning to single-task is a kindness to yourself and everyone you work or live with.

So stick with one task to completion if you can.  If your attention wanders, practice refocusing on your work.  If you decide to switch to a new task, take a moment to write yourself a note about where you were with the first one.  Then give the new job your full attention for as long as you can.

You could set a timer for 25 minutes, and then allow yourself a five-minute rest.  As you focus on one task (with cell phone off and extraneous browser tabs closed), you know that a break is coming when you can relax, stretch, drink some water, or even check your phone.  Then return for another session.

This practice of short work periods with continual return and refocus lets you stretch your attention span, be more productive, and access greater comprehension and creativity.

Do hard things

There's a theory that our inability to pay attention and the constant switching of our focus is simply an adaptation to the high technology age we live in.  With millions of streams of information at our fingertips, the theory goes, we have to process faster or we'll be overwhelmed.

But the human brain is not a computer.  It doesn't simply categorize, store, and retrieve information.  It constructs it.  It is a thinking, dynamic, reactive, creative system rather than a passive filing cabinet.  It's an incredibly complex biological organ designed to navigate environments, interact with the body, respond and adapt to experiences, solve problems, and create meaning!

We shortchange our abilities when we never develop the ability to focus them.  And when we become distracted by what's on a screen, we're vulnerable to the way online content has been developed to exploit our love of novelty, connection, and reward.  The result is a continual release of dopamine, which becomes an addiction much like that to heroin, meth, alcohol, or gambling.  This not only reinforces our desire to be online, but makes us feel sad and adrift without its constant stimulation.

Over time, we lose our ability to delay gratification, or to do the hard and patient work of solving problems or developing a relationship.  Dr. Anna Lembke, chief psychiatrist of Stanford's addiction clinic, says it's "crucial to take time to process an experience in a way that unfolds naturally," and realize that life isn't meant to be constant pleasure.

Paradoxically, when we do things that take concentration and effort, we will experience a dopamine burst afterwards.  Dr. Lembke adds,

Doing things that are hard is one of the best ways to pursue a life worth living, because the pleasure we get afterwards is more enduring.

Related article:  Why We Need to Bring Back Boredom

Close the loop

We're so used to rushing from one task to the next that we often leave things unfinished, or we leave a bit of a mess behind.  It's one way clutter builds up.

I've started thinking, "What picture of me would I like to project?"  Do I want to look like someone who doesn't care?  Someone who never pays attention to details?  Someone who can't be counted on to finish what I've started?  A sloppy job might be the frame for that picture.

So now I make sure to "close the loop."  What this means is that every task, large or small, has a beginning and an end.  Don't rush to the next thing before you've closed the loop.  For example:

• After I finish eating, I rinse my dishes and put them in the dishwasher.  I put away food, wipe the counter, and rinse out the cloth.

• After I get ready in the morning, I hang up my bath towel, use the hand towel to wipe the faucet, counter, and mirror, put it in the dirty clothes hamper, and hang a clean hand towel.

• As I do laundry, I don't just wash and dry the clothes; I fold or hang them and put them away.

• As I write the rough draft of a new post, I sketch an outline, add short notes, or include links I want to use for further research so I don't forget.  If I'm done writing for the day, I save my work and put my laptop away.

• As I deal with paperwork, I finish each task completely and file it where it belongs.  As much as possible, I don't leave items undone for more than a day.

If I slow down and complete what is called for in the moment, I can move on to the next thing with a sense of accomplishment and peace.

Practice mindfulness

Another way to combat our loss of focus is the deliberate practice of paying attention.  It's too easy for us to speed through our days without noticing much of anything around us.

If you want to stop feeling so rushed and pressured, slow down time by paying attention to what you're doing while you're doing it.  Improve your connections to others by paying attention to the people you encounter.  Do better work by focusing on important tasks.  Don't wait for a big bucket list experience to engage with your life.  Experience the details – the sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and feels – of every day, and you'll feel more alive.

The principle of mindfulness is simple: to bring our minds back to our bodies, to produce our true presence, and to become fully alive.

Thich Nhat Hanh

I think that's the meaning of the quote I cited at the beginning of this post.  Rushing, multi-tasking, seeking easy rewards, being sloppy, and ignoring details are all ways of saying that your activities don't really matter.  That the way you're spending your life doesn't matter.  But when you do what you're doing one hundred percent, you savor it and truly experience it, which is the essence of life.

If what you're doing matters – if you matter – give it one hundred percent.