{"id":17621,"date":"2022-02-23T10:30:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T16:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/?p=17621"},"modified":"2022-02-22T23:15:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T05:15:37","slug":"multi-tasking-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/editorials\/multi-tasking-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Your ability to be productive and multi-task may actually stem from anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you find yourself constantly attempting to close a hundred or so tabs while answering your work email and talking on the phone, you\u2019re not alone. In an interview<\/a> between Oliver Burkeman and Gretchen Rubin, the former unpacked a variety of productivity fallacies that we seem to normalize – and what the surprisingly simple alternatives look like.<\/p>\n

Spoiler alert<\/em>: Focusing on too many things at once may feel good, but it\u2019s often unproductive – and, as it turns out, inspired by stress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe desire to focus on multiple things at once is often driven by anxiety,\u201d says Burkeman, \u201cby the worry that we might not have enough time to do all the things we\u2019re convinced we need to do in order to justify our existence on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see this philosophy play out in a microcosm, especially since it\u2019s something of which many of us are guilty. Starting the day out by making an exhaustive list of everything that needs to be accomplished, grouping by similar activities to see where we can \u201cmultitask,\u201d and then bum-rushing everything else as quickly as possible feels like the smart way to beat time.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, none of us are winning that race. But, given that we all want the secret to productivity and happiness balance, Rubin asked Burkeman what truly makes him happy, and his answer is a bit of a revelation: \u201cDoing one thing at a time \u2013 and, wherever possible, seeing that thing through to completion before beginning another thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, that isn\u2019t always possible – Burkeman acknowledges this right away – but, as pointed out before, anxiety that we\u2019re somehow missing out on optimization of our time here is usually the driving force behind a frantic, less-productive process.<\/p>\n

Learning to let go of the idea that we\u2019re going to succeed in the pursuit of multitasking and embracing a slower, more methodical approach (again, wherever possible) is a quietly elegant answer to this age-old problem.<\/p>\n

I, too, am guilty of anxiety-fed action. I often find myself moving through the day in a frenetic, possibly hazardous manner, tackling things like cleaning<\/a>, cooking, paying attention to my animals, planning for work, and even grading (don\u2019t tell anyone) at the same time. It\u2019s a level of stress in which I\u2019ve learned to find comfort.<\/p>\n

But this summer off has taught me the same lesson espoused by Burkeman: That focusing on one thing at a time, seeing it through to completion, and closing the metaphorical tab in my brain before moving on to the next thing – as slow as it may feel – leaves me happier, less stressed, and more involved in the individual processes I seek to complete than the alternative.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d encourage you to try the same, albeit perhaps after a cup or two of coffee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(EDITORIAL) Like most modern folks, I multi-task like a champ. But maybe that’s not a good thing – this expert says it’s a result of anxiety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337375,"featured_media":12719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[1093,433,1234,1092],"class_list":["post-17621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-anxiety","tag-productivity","tag-real-estate-news","tag-stress"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/stressed.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17621"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18440,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17621\/revisions\/18440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}