Writers: Stop Multitasking today.
Humans are not designed for multitasking.
You think you are good at doing many things at once. Like answering emails while watching Youtube videos?
Think again, are you really doing anything important? Or you are just wasting your time.
Everyone has 24 hours to live and complete all our activities. Sometimes we complain about not getting enough time to complete what we had planned. And at that moment multitasking lures us subconsciously. Just to save time we decide to combine multiple things in one go.
If you are a writer, ask this question to yourself. Can you write good content while listening to a podcast or watching Netflix?
I have tried this activity in the past and the result was not satisfactory. Productivity was my main reason for trying out multitasking. But it seems I was just wasting my time doing multiple things.
Writing content needs undivided attention.
Multitasking ruins your productivity
The idea of keeping your focus on multiple things at the same time is not feasible. You are doing nothing but constantly switching between tasks.
Science has already proved that rapid task switching does not work.
I have been writing for a decade now and I have always tried and failed with multitasking. I would recommend it’s better to finish one task before you move to another.
Complete the research before you start writing your article. Or finish your social media scrolling before you start reading your medium feed. Don’t combine them.
Getting my point?
This brings me to the next point where we should focus on one thing.
Focus on one thing at a time
As a writer you need to understand the difference between acting busy and actually being busy.
Just because you are engaging in multiple things it does not mean you are busy and productive. You are just doing chunks of every task but failing to complete anything.
Focusing and completing one thing actually leads to productivity.
But this will make no sense, Anurag!
Doing multiple things quickly will be more productive, right?
I agree to disagree with this.
Doing multiple things is obviously a great way to appear busy. But in reality it just drains your energy and you never complete any task.
Gary Keller, the author of The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results says:
“When you want the absolute best chance to succeed at anything you want, your approach should always be the same. Go small.
It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.”
The ability to focus in this modern era of electronics and social media is very difficult. There are distractions everywhere, internet is the biggest one.
Take for example I could have created a self hosted blog, where I could have posted ads, a bio column in the sidebar, create affiliate marketing opportunities and much more. But instead, I choose to write on Medium. Everything else is a distraction for me. My focus is writing and I concentrate on that. Medium takes care of everything else. I can live with it.
You need to accept the fact that something will be left out of the calendar and it is completely fine.
This brings me to the next point which is very crucial.
The art of letting things go
I work as a Software developer full time and letting go of an opportunity to create a new blog with some cool technology was very difficult.
But letting go of that desire was important. Writing articles and worrying about the server configurations or the technology is not what I wanted. I am passionate about writing and I wanted my undivided attention on just writing good content.
I am trying to learn the art of leaving unimportant things out.
Scrolling through entire instagram feed is not important, you can live with it. I know I can. Few months back, I used to look at my Instagram feed and read stories on Medium.
I know, it was a stupid act.
I no longer have Instagram installed on my mobile. It was just another distraction for me.
You see, creating an undivided focus on one thing takes time. If you keep moving your focus, you will not get anything important done.
Multitasking may sound cool but in reality it just ruins your productivity in the long run. Your focus is diverted to multiple things and you are trapped in a never ending stream of tasks. You never finish any, instead you are doing small chunks of everything.
Choose a single task at a time and omit everything else. The satisfaction of completing task overpowers anything else.
You just read another exciting post from the Book Mechanic: the writer’s source for creating books that work and selling those books once they’re written.
If you’d like to read more stories just like this one tap here to visit
