MSN LIFESTYLE – 24 September 2020
Last Friday we first looked at this list of habits that may not be serving us well, and that we may want to look at and really reconsider. What are our current habits? Are they serving us well? Why or why not? Where can we change?
Here is that list again:
- Too much screen time
- Screen time before bed
- Focusing too much on yourself
- Too much news
- Binge watching
- Multi-tasking
- Emotional spending
- Not getting enough sleep
- Social isolation
- Breaking promises to yourself or others
- Holding grudges
- Procrastinating
- Declining to learn new things
- Not hydrating enough
- Mindless eating
- Eating processed foods
- Mouth breathing
- Not flossing
- Not having enough sex
- Not getting 30 minutes of exercise a day
- Spending too much time indoors
- Bad posture
- Not writing things down
- Fixating on the past
Remember, some of these things I have already cleaned up in my life: Flossing, exercising 30 minutes daily, writing things down, I’ve stopped checking the news all the time, this week I kept off my phone an hour before bedtime, etc.
Some of these things I have been working on with you in ONE YEAR: Keeping promises to myself and others, hydration, holding grudges, etc.
Today is FRIDAY FITNESS AND HEALTH MATTER, and I want to look at another item on the list, that I could clean up in my life, starting right away.
Multi-tasking. I just got off the phone with my sister. But when I first sat down to talk to her, I put my computer on my lap so I could work on this post while talking to her, and I left my bedroom door open so the children could have access to me. All at the same time.
It’s like trying to discipline a child while I am on the toilet. Less effective.
The conversation with my sister didn’t mean anything until I put the computer down and shut the door.
“Multitasking to get more than one thing done at the same time may seem like the smart choice, but research suggests it can impair productivity by as much as 40%. (It) exhausts the brain’s executive functioning by switching back and forth between tasks.”
And this is maybe something that I can play with this weekend. Because, without intentionally noticing its effects on my productivity, it feels like multi-tasking may serve me well at times. Cooking breakfast and cleaning the kitchen at the same time, right? But maybe, at other times, I would show up better for others and for myself if I were able to focus on one thing at a time. Exercising my arms and then cleaning the bedroom, rather than trying to do both at the same time.
“As with other forms of multitasking, eating during other tasks, such as working, socializing, or watching TV, can make both activities less satisfying. A 2013 report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compiled studies to conclude that not paying attention to a meal was associated with eating more, during that meal and later.”
Let’s separate it out, then. When we are watching a show, we are watching a show. When we are socializing, we are socializing. When I am working on a blog post, I should keep the food at the kitchen table and enjoy the food there. Then return to my chair at my computer and focus on the blog post alone there.
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