Single vs Multi-Tasking: Being More Effective

We are all about being more effective with our time, emotions, and energy. It supports our mental health and overall health, allowing us to show up in the world as our true selves and maintain healthy relationships. Our RMT Aaron Murray is on the blog to chat about the difference adding single tasking into your life can make, and why multitasking can get in the way of productivity, achieving our goals, and effectively managing our time! 

Single tasking refers to the act of focusing on one task at a time - dedicating all of your attention and effort to completing one task before moving on to the next. Single tasking is considered more efficient and effective because it allows your brain to focus all of its attention and resources on the task at hand, reducing the potential for distractions and errors.

Multitasking refers to the act of working on multiple tasks at the same time. This could mean attempting to accomplish several different tasks at once, such as responding to an email while on a conference call, or quickly switching between different tasks, like checking social media while working on a report. Multitasking is considered less efficient and effective than single tasking because it splits the brain's attention and resources among multiple tasks, which can lead to a decrease in productivity and an increase in errors. Multitasking can create a lot of mental and emotional stress, because it requires the brain to continually shift gears, leading to increase in the production of stress hormone cortisol, which can harm the overall well-being.

Studies show that multitasking can decrease productivity up to 40% and cause an increase in the production of the stress hormone cortisol. This is because when you multitask, you are constantly switching your attention from one task to another and the brain does not have time to fully engage and complete one task before moving to the next. This constant switching can also create a scattered focus, and cause difficulty to focus when you are trying to do just one task. On the other hand, single tasking allows the brain to focus on one task at a time, which can help to improve concentration and increase productivity.

Single Tasking versus Multi tasking in Practice

The ability to hyper focus one task versus multiple tasks at one time is a beautiful practice. It allows you to put your full attention, energy and focus in to something, as opposed to only giving a fraction of yourself. 

Focusing on a task, practicing a sport, honing a craft, reading a book, working on a relationship - the list goes on … Whatever it may be, fully leaning into and committing to something will bring you amazing results. 

In that same breath, we DO live in a technologically based society. Many of us are dependent on our phones, tablets and computers for work, social and communication aspects in our lives. More often that not, you will see people with their phones in their face or in their hand (generally not too far from either). Putting your phone down (even just tucked away while working on a task) could be the answer to being more productive! 

To be able to fully concentrate allows you to be fully present, fully engaged, fully appreciative. I, personally, incorporate this into as many activities as possible. A few standouts have to be:

Conversation and connection with friends and family is an absolute gift that I cherish and therefore will always give it my full love and attention.

My own yoga practice. Fully present, focused on breath, listening to my body. I am such a huge advocate for self care and will always try to be present for me!

During Massage Therapy & Yoga Therapy sessions of course! My clients deserve my undivided attention, energy and focus. Being able to engage with clients and simultaneously being of service is why I love this career so much. 

“Single-tasking improves performance: It’s been proven that multitasking actually makes things 40% more timely to complete — therefore, focusing on one task at a time will improve overall efficiency as you'll be able to get more done in a shorter period of time” -thehive.com

If this blog post resonated with you, we highly recommend booking with our Registered Massage Therapist and Yoga Therapist, Aaron Murray! 

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