It’s inevitable, unless you have an entourage helping you through life, that we feel the need to multi-task. But is it stressing us out? Research has shown that our brain actually can’t multi-task, but instead constantly shifts focus from one task to another. This makes your body increase the amount of cortisol, or stress hormone, in your body (see article here & here).
I recently decided that the input required to use my smart phone was creating a stressed-out monster. I noticed that on the days that I’d had a bad day, or felt stressed out, or yelled at my kids, or had a sore and tight jaw, I needed to charge my phone twice as much. So I turned the data off. I went back to deep, dark ages of the late 1990s and just made calls and used text messages. I called people instead of using Whatsapp, I stopped Googling each question that popped in to my head. I stopped taking the phone in to my bedroom at night. And I felt great. And it got me thinking, it’s not the phone, it’s the fact that we are using the phone and doing something else at the same time. We are multi-tasking almost every time we use our phones.
And it’s not just when we use our phones. It’s when we eat, cook, watch tv, and sometimes, even when we are driving!
I was speaking to my GP about this, and he said that multi-tasking doesn’t allow your body and mind to take a break. Instead it activates a cortisol response that allows our body to assume we have a fight on our hands, and that we need to get on top of things quickly.
But what should we do? We can’t go back to the ‘old days’ and live without technology, or focus on just one thing all the time. And technology is useful. Who really wants to go back to using the Melways? What we can do is try and balance it out a little bit. Have moments or periods of the day that you do just try to keep it to one thing. These are a list of things I do to try and keep myself chilled:
- Not look at my phone after the kids are in bed (about 7:30pm)
- Do a task that requires concentration – for me, it’s knitting. If you get that wrong, you end up pulling out so much of your work you want to cry
- Reading – preferably something in print
- Stare out of the window on public transport
- Drinking a cup of tea without doing anything else
- Listen mindfully – I find this one really Just listen to what someone is saying. Don’t start formulating a response, or get bored and wander off (in your mind, that is, not in person). Stay listening.
- Just eat. Don’t do anything but eat. No looking at the phone, watching tv, or working. Try to just eat, even if it’s for half or your meal, or 10 bites.
- When you are waiting on hold – just wait. Try to resist the urge to do anything else.
If it all seems too much and just another thing to do, remember, something is better than nothing. 1 minute a day is better than nothing at all! Once a week is better than never.
