Multitasking

With numerous activities daily that should be done, one cannot deny the fact that multitasking is an option – if you want to finish early and have more time for yourself. Multitasking for humans is the ability to perform more than one activity at the same time such as listening to music while doing reports or eating while driving inside the car. Anyone would’ve multitasked more than once daily especially when you are nearing a deadline and you are such a crammer you do it prior to the due date. Dividing up your attention among different tasks may not be the best option.

What to know about Multitasking?

With the curiosity about multitasking, many researchers opted to find out more about how it can either put you on a disadvantage – or not. Here’s what you should know about multitasking:

Pro:

• Increase efficiency – multitasking allows you to finish different tasks or activities in less time. It is ideal for people who does not know how to manage their time well and often ends up cramming on things.
• Increase resiliency – multitasking needs much focus especially when you want to finish quickly. It can strengthen your mental focus and also promotes flexibility of the mind.
• Increase productivity – Some tasks at work are often repetitive and does not have much impact on your work quality. Doing these simple tasks together can actually increase your productivity for the day.

Con:

• Declining quality – multitasking demands excessive urgency in finishing tasks, and this can actually decline the quality level of the work than as compared to those that were carefully done. There is room for plenty of mistakes too.
• Distraction – Multitasking may bring your focus to your current task, but it also keeps you distracted from the other activities that you should attend to.  In the long run, multitasking may hinder you from focusing on important tasks as you got used to doing it.
• Misplaced Priorities – Doing things two at a time can also misplace your priorities. People tend to forget to give importance to a significant task when multitasking. They have a mindset that as long as the job is done, there is nothing to worry about and that is just wrong.

Mindfulness and Multitasking

We’ve defined mindfulness previously, it is defined as the state of being conscious and aware of one’s thoughts, feelings and even surroundings. It brings the focus of a person to the present moment and allows your mind to be away from all the worries and thoughts that you have. Mindfulness is not just a time for yourself, it is also an advantage especially when used at work.

Mindfulness works by taking a proactive approach and allows you to create your own plan for the day by maximizing the time that you have on your hand. It shifts your full attention on your current task effortlessly and effective. Multitasking may cause you to be productive, but it does not assure the quality of your work. By following your plans, you are being productive and at the same time ensures that your work is of good quality.

Multitasking causes a person to forget to prioritize work and give importance to it. Mindfulness makes sure that you have  a real and enough progress especially on the important tasks.

Mindful Break at Work

Work can take a toll on a person’s health and life. We listed down few activities you can easily incorporate on your short breaks:

1. Move around – take a short walk or just go around the office for a few minutes. If you only have a minute, you may just stand for a few seconds and stretch your body. Changing one’s position after sitting for a long time brings the body to focus on the present moment and aids in relieving your mind and body from the stress caused by work.

2. Laugh more – did you know that being happy or laughing actually releases chemicals in our brain that is beneficial for us? Also, happiness lowers your stress level and relaxes your mind even for quite a bit of time.

3. Breathe – do short breathing exercises. Deep breathing is not only good for your lungs but it is also proven that it calms your mind and body, promotes blood circulation and boosts your energy. 

Next time that you are pressed for time and you feel pressure. Always take a second to relax and breathe. Taking a short break may be just the game-changer that you needed. It pumps up your body, mind and life!

Mindfulness and its Benefits

• MINDFULNESS HELPS YOU SLEEP

Did you ever had a hard time sleeping at night? Your mind keeps on repeating your thoughts and memories multiple times preventing you from having a good night sleep. It was found that mindfulness can improve your sleeping difficulties somehow. It creates a mental space where sleep is welcomed, and your everyday thoughts is interrupted.

• MINDFULNESS REDUCES ANXIETY

There are many things that can make someone anxious some of it are related to mental health problems that might be a result of a major experience in someone’s life. Recent researches has shown that practicing mindfulness helps reduce someone’s anxiety by teaching them how to respond to better to the stress by being more aware of what is currently happening rather than acting instinctively without truly knowing the emotions and motives behind those decisions. Being more aware of oneself allows you to be more adaptive in difficult situations.

• MINDFULNESS REDUCES STRESS

Everyday stress is inevitable. Mindfulness helps alleviate some of your worries and negative feelings and tries to convert it into a positive feeling. Mindfulness leads to a greater perceptions of body awareness. It makes you aware of the state of your internal emotions. It also better controls your attention making it easier to focus on tasks rather than being distracted.

• MINDFULNESS MAY PREVENT AND TREAT DEPRESSION

Depression is one of the most common mental illness worldwide. Around 80% of people who were diagnosed with depression experiences relapse at some point in their lives. A therapy called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy or MBCT is a new approach found by researchers. It was proven to relatively prevent depression relapse as effective as medications. MBCT is an 8-week program that includes mindfulness exercises such as yoga, household chores and body awareness. People with depression are at risk of having negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs about themselves, MBCT increases their awareness of what’s truly happening around them, acknowledge it and respond in a different way  

• MINDFULNESS HELPS WEIGHT-LOSS GOALS

When people are stressed, they often result to stress or emotional eating. They tend to overeat as a result of having strong emotions and feelings. This is their way of coping with the conflicts, dulling their strong emotions temporarily. Mindful eating is a new technique which helps restore your relationship with food and eating. It involves using our senses while eating such as knowing how the food smell, taste, and how it restores our body after taking meals. Using this technique, we become aware of the internal cues of hunger and cease our desire to binge when emotionally challenged. Mindful eating can lead to weight loss and losing weight should serve as a determination.

• MINDFULNESS HELPS INCREASE BODY SATISFACTION

Body dissatisfaction is one of the sources of anxiety of many women. Negative conceptualization of a person about themselves can lead to negative body image, body dissatisfaction and in some extreme cases, it might even lead to body dysmorphic disorders. Mindfulness encourages a non-judgmental of self-awareness. It can counteract fixation with one’s appearance and reflection that can provoke negative thoughts. Mindfulness helps women relate to their criticisms about themselves and avoid fixating too much on their bodies.

• MINDFULNESS IMPROVES COGNITION AND ATTENTION

Mindfulness has a great impact on the processes of the brain. It helps control and direct the cognitive processes for working memory, planning, decision making, self-regulation cognitive inhibition and creative problem solving. Aside from enhancing a person’s cognitive function, mindfulness was found to improve higher-order level of thinking. The continuous focusing on breath while practicing mindfulness promotes attention switching or cognitive flexibility.

• MINDFULNESS HELPS MANAGE CHRONIC PAIN

Since the focus of mindfulness is all about the mind and the body. A daily dose of mindfulness practice can be helpful on people who are in chronic pain. There is an increasing evidence that mindfulness has a great impact on a person’s pain experience. Pain is associated to three major components: physical sensations, emotional response to these sensations and social effects due to the experience of pain. Mindfulness can put together these 3 components in harmony. It reduces the experience of pain without reducing its severity. It also shapes you to become fearless and to accept that pain will be present in your life but not suffering.

• MINDFULNESS IS GOOD FOR THE HEART

Heart disease is one of the leading of causes of death in the World. In the United States, it accounts for about 1 in 4 deaths yearly. In a research by scientist, people who are pre-hypertensive were treated with mindfulness meditation or any program that promotes muscle relaxation, in adjunct to their drug treatment. It was found that the inclusion of mindfulness can significantly decrease the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of those people who are at risk of having a heart disease. It also slows down the heart rate and correct its rhythm which led to a better health of not only heart but the whole body.

References:

https://www.anxiety.org/can-mindfulness-help-reduce-anxiety

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/03/cover-mindfulness

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/weight-loss

https://inkblotuoft.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/janice-to.pdf

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01037/full