“I don’t have enough time to rush.” - Tara Brach
The Myth of Multitasking
Did you join us on our journey into silence last month? If so, did you notice any benefits? I tried to take the challenge seriously, spending more time without music playing (at least until Folklore dropped because #swiftieforever), and I found that I enjoyed it more than I expected. My mind was a tad less busy, less interested in flitting from task to task as quickly as possible. I still had to consciously remind myself that I had plenty of time to accomplish everything and I could slow down, but I needed the reminder a bit less frequently.
I’m sure we’ve all heard that our brains aren’t actually capable of multitasking, that they simply switch rapidly from task to task. In the process of switching back and forth, we’re likely to make mistakes, to miss things. That means we often need more time to double-check our work than we would need if we’d just focused fully on it to start with. And if we don’t check our work, we end up serving our kids a lunch of just two slices of bread rather than an actual sandwich, or we end up mailing in a rent check that we forgot to sign.
If you stopped and took a look at your day, would you find that there’s a particular part of the day when you rush to get everything done? Maybe you try to cram in stuff right before bed. Or if you’re like me, you bust your butt first thing in the morning so that you can relax later in the day. I’ll block off twenty minutes for a twenty-minute task, then I’ll rush to accomplish the task and unnecessarily ruin my enjoyment of it. Or if it’s something I don’t enjoy, I’ll rush to finish it and find that I’m more stressed out about finishing this hated task quickly than I would have been if all I’d focused on was the task, rather than the task and the clock.
Ultimately, I don’t add time to my day by moving faster. All I’m doing is overwhelming myself and my brain. So, the lesson I’m focusing on right now is “I don’t have time to rush.”
We've Got a Secret
Behind the scenes at Joy Editing, we’re working on a pretty exciting project that we’re tentatively planning to launch in October, so be sure to keep an eye on our Facebook page (@joyediting) and Instagram (@joyeditingco) so you don’t miss any of the details!
Until next month, soak up those last days of summer and take care of yourselves!
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