I wanted to talk about this topic because I myself noticed so many times over the past years that I created a very unhealthy way of working on things – usually having my phone next to me and many tabs open, so i am constantly disturbed by notifications and messages. But not only these very obvious things, it’s also about creating myself a few bad habits, like replying to emails whenever they come in and generally reacting on anything right away as soon as something comes up.

To be honest, in the last year i worked more and more on avoiding this and structuring my days or tasks more, but it’s still really difficult. Which is weird, because whenever I do this, I feel much better and get so much more done. So why is it so difficult to change the habits?

 

Actually when googling a bit about this topic, I found an explanation –  scientists found out that multitasking is highly addictive. When we do it successfully (or we think we do), basically always when we complete a task, dopamine is released in our brains, a chemical which is highly addictive, so our brain always wants more of it. That’s why we easily find ourselves in something scientists call a dopamine-addiction feedback loop.

 

The problem is that at the same time multitasking causes lots of negative issues, e.g. making more mistakes and a decrease of short-term memory. A study of the American Psychological Association shows that switching between tasks reduces productivity by 40%! Studies even showed that constant multitasking causes a decrease of grey matter density in parts of our brain which are associated with empathy and emotional control.

 

In general I have to say that I was surprised to find so much material of hundreds of studies which all show more or less the same results and make very clear that multitasking has many negative impacts and isn’t healthy after all.

 

So, what can we do about this? I think that we should practice a beautiful thing which people call monotasking or singletasking. This simple concept shares the idea of dedicating ourselves to one task at a time and think about how we can avoid interruptions.

When we multitask, we are actually not doing multiple things at once but rapidly shifting attention between different activities, so monotasking is all about sticking to one task and getting deeper into it without drifting off after a short time. This way, we don’t only calm our mind, but also get into topics in a deeper and more meaningful way, give it more value and often feel much more satisfied. By giving something attention for a longer period of time, we’ll create a bigger energy for it, and only after a longer time, we’ll think about aspects which we wouldn’t touch really if only giving it a quick thought

 

To do this, I have a bunch of tips of how we can change our habits and make this happen. Of course everybody might have a bit of a different way, but I really recommend trying out the following things:

 

•  I would recommend to make a work schedule for each day, either in the beginning of a day or for example on Mondays and then for the whole upcoming week, to map out your tasks. Important is not only to do this, but also to respect it and to stick to it. Often when we do freelance or creative work, we tend to skip something if something else comes up or somebody asks us to have a coffee or to help with something else. But also creative and freelance work is work, and both you and others should respect this as your working time, and as an important time to do what we need and like to do.

 

• Instead of having short periods of times for this and that, it makes sense to create longer working blocks, for example choose only one or two big topics for a day and schedule 2-4 hours for each. Then for all the smaller tasks which you constantly have in between, I recommend just scheduling 2-3 times a day a shorter time to do this, e.g. answering emails – this can easily be done for example in the beginning of a work day, maybe once after our longer break, and before we leave our office or desk. There is really no need to constantly check the inbox and always reply right away. I am myself a person who does or did this, but I also find this crazy and found out that it’s usually only myself thinking that I should reply immediately. Others usually don’t mind waiting some hours, a day or even several days. It’s just something we have learned especially in the decades of social media, that we feel like messages need to be answered right away. I really, really would like to tell anybody that this is not necessary, and also that we should stop expecting it from others. There is this phenomenon of just quickly sending a short message on Facebook about a simple question, and then getting mad if people don’t reply right away, but we should all remember that others also have other things to do and the right to reply whenever they can, and that we don’t know in which situation they are at the moment. Really, we all should stop doing this, so I even try to have work-related issues as much as possible only on emails, where at least there is a bit less craziness about instant replying.

 

• There is something else which is really simple but helped me a lot to work more concentrated: turning off notifications of apps, so that I don’t get distracted when something happens on Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp or on my emails. This sounds so basic, but simply not seeing a light on my phone or hearing a sound or vibration helped so much and calms down my mind a lot. It’s even helpful sometimes to use the flight mode or to put the phone into another room.Even for social media you could choose certain times to check them instead of doing that several times an hour. The interesting thing is that we always check everything because we think we are missing out on something, but I tell you that this is usually not the case. Checking Facebook or Instagram only twice a day won’t make you missing anything, but for sure give you more peace and less distraction. If you would like to do this but have troubles changing your habits, there are also several apps to use to block your social media or even emails for a certain amount of time or for some hours a day.

 

•  Then another very important thing of course is to also schedule break times. This is touching very much what I was talking about in my first video, the simple way of giving yourself proper breaks, to remember to eat and get yourself away from the work devices, get some fresh air, or simply do nothing. Breaks are so important to stay healthy and sane and will also most likely make you more productive. Next to one or two longer breaks each day, you can also add a few minutes in between for short-time meditation. Sometimes even 2 minutes of closing your eyes and concentrating on your breath does a lot.

 

• In general, it’s good to give yourself working hours, to make sure you’ll not work 24/7 but to find a both a beginning and an end. I would recommend to think about what is the most productive time when you feel especially fit mentally. This is for some people in the morning, for others it might be late in the day or whenever. Try to use this time for one of the bigger or more important tasks, and build your work day around that. Listen to yourself and what feels most healthy and good for you. It’s really good to have a plan about a work schedule, rather than ending up working random hours and sit down for important things when it’s actually during our tiredness or sleeping times.

 

•  Think about your work environment. Maybe a certain type of music helps? For a good reason, concentration playlists go really strong on all streaming platforms. But also think about your surroundings, if there is anything to make you less distracted. Sometimes a change of scenery from your normal work space can also help.

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These are a few ideas and I think most important is to know that it’s never too late to change habits, no matter how addictive they seem or how difficult it is. It’s really worth it to try out a bit and look what feels good for you, and then to stick to it and create new habits. In the end there are so many areas in our lives in which we can’t choose if we multitask or not, like when we talk while driving or similar activities, but for some things like work and self-care times, we have the power to control and manage this ourselves pretty much, so why not trying it out?

 

I hope this video helps you and gives some inspiration. As always, I’m really happy to hear your feedback or experiences, so feel free to comment on the video or to send me a message if you feel like it.