As you’re looking ahead to changes you’d like to make in the coming year, I invite you to consider my favorite game-changer: eliminating multitasking.

You might think that you’re able to multitask, but neuroscience shows that 97% of the population experience fatigue, a decreased ability to assess risk,  and deteriorated mood as a result. Truthfully, the idea that you are capable of successfully multitasking is a myth. 

This is because when the prefrontal cortex is needed for both activities, it is unable to focus simultaneously on both. Instead, the brain switches its attention back and forth between the tasks, which decreases performance on both tasks. 

You’ll still be able to do thinking activities alongside motor activities, such as walking or running, but anything that requires the PFC must be isolated to complete it well. 

Only 3% of the population are “super taskers” who have the ability to focus on multiple things at once. These people have the genetic ability to hold many factors in awareness at once by effectively automating some tasks over others. (You’ll often find such individuals thriving as top high performance pilots, high end chefs, and ER doctors.) 

If you’re serious about achievement in 2021, my recommendation is choose the opposite of a busy mind: a mindful one. 

Make focus into a habit. Pay full attention to others when they speak with you. Turn your phone and your iPad off for blocks of time during the day. Attend to the task at hand as if it were sacred work.

When you train your mind to focus in one area of your life with a deepened mindfulness practice, the impact will be felt in every area of your life. 

Faster results. Smoother processes. More joy.

To your success,

Kimberly