Living in the midst of busyness and modernization in a metropolitan city such as Jakarta; is one of the things that indirectly makes us tired. We are accustomed to doing things in a hurry since we are pressed by time. We often do several things at one time, such as play games while eating, do the assignment while the lecturer is teaching, make a report while in the middle of the meeting. For some people, completing several jobs at one time is effective and makes them proud. This is known as multitasking, millennials are often mistaken to think of this as a special skill. But the fact is multitasking can lower your performance.
When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks well.
The Stanford researches made an observation by comparing groups of people based on their tendency to multitask and their belief that it boosts their performances. The results show that those who multitask a lot were actually worse at multitasking than those who like to do a single thing at a time. It is because they had trouble organizing their thoughts and time, so they tend to waste their time switching from one task to another without completing the previous one.
Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because you distract your brain. It cannot focus on one thing at a time. Your cognitive capacity is diminished when you multitask. A study at the University of London found that those who multitask during cognitive tasks have experienced declines in IQ score, it drops around 15 points. In the long term, multitasking affects our brain capacity and can physically damages our brain. Researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK conducted research by doing an MRI scan to those who spend on multiple devices’ brains. They found that high multitaskers had less brain density in the anterior cingulated cortex (part of the human brain that responsible for empathy, cognitive, and emotional control). Thus, we can conclude that multitasking has lots of negative effects.
What Should Millenials Do?
If you are reaching this part and keep continuing to read this article, it means that you experience similar problems or interested in mindfulness and cognitive capacity topics. Multitasking is not a good habit that you should keep. It clearly slows you down and decreases your performance. Allowing yourself to multitask will make any existing difficulties you have with concentration, organization, and attention to detail become worse. Why does change your multitasking habit is important?
As mentioned before, multitasking can damage your part of the brain (anterior cingulated cortex) which is the key brain region for EQ (emotional intelligence).
It will lower your EQ in the process and makes you feel less sympathetic, easy to get mad, and low motivation to socialize. All those things will affect your career in the future. EQ skills are critical and important to success at work. Your attitude, behaviors, ethics, manners show your quality as a human being. Clarance Thomas once said that “good manners will open doors that the best education cannot”. It means your EQ can define your future.
The first thing you have to do is set your priorities. We are only human and reaching all the stars with two hands is impossible. We need to finish your jobs one by one and make sure it is completely done so you can celebrate your achievements and proud of your work. We can make general priority lists (such as education priorities, career, or family priorities) or the daily precise priority (to-do list and schedule).
Practicing mindfulness is one of the ways to get rid of our multitasking habit.
Mindfulness is a concept that trains us to be more aware of our thoughts and emotions at the moment. It trains us to focus on one thing that we are doing to maximize our time, identify, and control our emotions. It can help us psychologically to stimulate us to do the essential things. We simply live at the moment, celebrate our present feelings, enjoy things without thinking about other less essential things (such as the past, failure, limitation, and weakness). Do the meditation at least 5 – 10 minutes in the morning or before you go to sleep. Listen to your heartbeat, breath, and make yourself as relax as you can. This practice is usually done in Buddhism and now people do it to increase their spiritual and being of life as well.
Mindfulness can reduce your stress and the probability of your depression occurrence. We will become a lot better at learning or doing something. It also can help you to increase your quality of social relationships because you become more empathic and care to others. Your view of life and your own selves will be better. Elyse Santilli, the writer and life coach at NotesOnBliss.com, shares a few easy ways you can practice mindfulness in your daily life:
1. Eat mindfully. Simply focus all of your attention to your meal (such as the smell and taste).
2. Walk mindfully. Observe what is going on around you, the sights, the sounds, and the interactions.
3. Listen wholeheartedly. Listen to others without interruption and fully listen until it is your turn to speak.
4. Meditate daily. Meditation has huge benefits as it increases your levels of energy, happiness, inspiration, and inner peace.
5. Travel or mix up your routine. Take a different route, stop by at a new coffee shop, visit a new place, cooking a new recipe, or learn a new skill. Your senses take over for a short while and it frees you from your promiscuous mind.
6. Observe your thoughts and emotions. Simply be aware of our thoughts and let them come and go. It is normal.
This is maybe an uncommon thing that millennials will do. But I am sure it will help us to improve ourselves and help us to find our priorities in life. Those tips will not succeed if we don’t have a will or desire to learn and try. So, let’s learn and be better together. Due to the pandemic, it’s the right time to try and practice mindfulness. We have more time to stay at home, we don’t waste our time on the way as usual. It will help us to build new good habits that can change our way of life and also our future.
Sources:
-Bradberry, Travis. Multasking Damage Your Brain and Your Career, New Studies
Suggest. Newsletter Articles. Talent Smart. Retrieved from
https://www.talentsmart.com/articles/Multitasking-Damages-Your-Brain-and-Your-
Career,-New-Studies-Suggest-2102500909-p-1.html.
-Santilli, Elyse. (2015). 10 Easy Ways You Can Practice Mindfulness. Huffpost,
(September 02, 2015). Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.huffpost.com/entry/10-easy-ways-you-can-
practice-mindfulness_b_8069422/amp.
-Rahardjo, Jojo. (2015). Mindfulness Lagi & 3 Keuntungannya. Kompasiana (November
16, 2015). Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kompasiana.com/amp/mjr/mindfulness-lagi-3-
keuntungannya_564987957197735d13db1289.
-Prakoso, Indra Dwi. (2019). Mengenal Mindfulness, Kondisi Diri yang Bisa Bikin Kita.
-Selalu Happy. Riliv (May 15, 2019). Retrieved from https://riliv.co/rilivstory/mengenal-
mindfulness-bikin-kita-selalu-happy/.
Written by: Shyintia Lo, 22, Indonesia
Instagram: @takeitslo_ | Email: shyintialo1198@gmail.com
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