Hey Momprenueur, your hurting your brain with all this multitasking, and its slowing you down. I know, I know, you have so many things to do, you can’t possibly get to them all unless you double up. I’m being serious, its time to stop unless you want to continue to tax your mind and achieve less than you are capable of. It goes against our nature as mothers, but it is necessary. Just this morning, I poured my coffee while breastfeeding the baby and telling my 2-year-old he can’t have cookies for breakfast. Then, still nursing, I turned the hot water on and started spraying down some of the dishes I didn’t get to last night, put my coffee in the microwave and grabbed the clothes from the wash and shoved them into the dryer — one-handed.
Multitasking is motherhood. Its what we do. I hunt for socks while talking on the phone to make a pediatrician appointment and help the toddler eat a peanut butter jelly. It never ends the amount of tasks we try and almost succeed in doing at one time. But, when it comes to business, this is not such a good idea. Its been proven that we are way less productive when we are interrupted and jumping between different demands. We can’t fully get our creative gloves on when we keep taking them off, putting on other gloves, then taking those off and putting the creative ones back on. Think of it like changing into different outfit for each task for your mind. Its just a lot of extra work.
I used to tell myself it was a good thing I could skip from project to project and get the most done at once, or so I thought. If I moved forward on many projects at once I was moving faster right?
Well, according to CoSchedule, there are 8 Startling Truths About Multitasking and Productivity. Basically, multitasking isn’t good for your brain. Our brains are actually not capable of focusing on different things at once. We can jump between various needs quickly, but not actually pay complete attention to them. Attempting to do two things at once causes stress to your brain. As mompreneurs, do we really want to stress our brains out more? I’ll take you one step further and let you know that the University of Sussex published a study illustrating that multitaskers have less brain density.
Studies have found that multi-tasking reduces your productivity by 40 %. According to Forbes and Julie Morgenstern, author of Time Management from The Inside Out, it takes four times longer for your brain to switch and recognize new things, so you’re not saving time.
Even us mothers, who are known to juggle and jump from task to task like pro athletes don’t benefit from multitasking in our business. It may be a survival mode in our homes, but it shouldn’t be our default when pursuing our professional dreams. Focusing attentively on one task is like a luxury I forgot how to enjoy. Its something I will have to work on to be more efficient and achieve what I am truly capable of. This concept deems true in our homes and with our family as well. People deserve our full attention. Our families deserve our focus, as difficult as that is with multiple little children demanding it all day at various intervals.
Your business, your children and your husband deserve moments of undivided attention. If it’s more productive for your business, think of the benefits for your relationship with your children and husband. I’m constantly saying “hold on,” and having my little ones hustle around after me, while I try to catch up on all the things. You know, just all that stuff. Now, we have research to help us be present in each task and each relationship because we want our home and our businesses to be the fruit of our best work.
Originally published at medium.com