studies have shown that multitasking does not increase but reduces our efficiency and productivity. And the explanation is simple: to realize our full potential, we need great mental capacity and this is blocked by the division of our concentration into several tasks. I mean that I've never seen a top athlete at training who also tried a Bulletproof Coffee and planned his weekend trip. Highest efficiency and productivity require highest concentration and we achieve this through singletasking!
Where in your everyday life do you rely on multitasking? Perhaps you are not so well aware of the situations because they have become your everyday behavioural repertoire. So take a little time, a pen and paper and think in a quiet place in which everyday situations you do multitasking. We always experience relaxation when we can consciously and attentively perceive people, places, activities and circumstances. Multitasking prevents this, however. Start by setting up your everyday life in such a way that you can singletask. This may feel unfamiliar at first, but it decelerates everyday life wonderfully and gives you the opportunity to really enjoy the individual activities!
Integrating breaks into everyday life
What do you think about people who regularly meet during working hours for a chat or a coffee break? Maybe these people are the epitome of unproductivity for you. But the reality is a little different: Those who take regular breaks are more productive in the long term. The breaks allow us to maintain the natural rhythm of relaxation and activity/tension. Even the most hardworking bodybuilder in the world needs training breaks and that's how you should handle it. A proven technique is the division of working time into units:
- 55 minutes of work
- 5 minutes break
- 55 minutes of work
- 5 minutes break
- 55 minutes of work
- 30 minutes break
- 55 minutes of work
- 5 minutes break
- ...
You can see that you should take a break of at least five minutes once an hour to increase your effectiveness and conserve your resources at the same time. Once you get used to this new rhythm, you will be able to perform better and work more creatively, effectively and productively! In the small breaks you can enjoy a short stay in the fresh air, stretch yourself, take a deep breath, eat fruit or vegetables and drink a glass of tea or water. During the longer breaks you can enjoy a full meal in peace and quiet!
Re-establish priorities
Sometimes it is time to set your priorities anew, especially when your inner balance has been lost over the years. The priorities that you set back then no longer have to correspond to your current attitude to life, so do not be afraid to rearrange this area vigorously. To do this, first write down which areas of your life you particularly fill with happiness. Is it your partnership, your family, your children, your pets, your social commitment, your job, your regular travelling, sports activities, cooking with friends or something completely different? Create your personal Top 10 to be happy. Of course, it is part of life to also provide financial security, even if the current job may not contribute to everyday happiness. Then the list of priorities is not "my profession", but "financial security". Then take a look at your everyday structure:
- How many hours do you spend sleeping?
- How much time do you spend at work?
- How much free time do you have?
Write down the exact hourly distribution of an entire week. You may find that you work a lot of overtime each week (which you don't necessarily have to make happy) and spend very little time with your loved ones. Sometimes the restructuring of the everyday life helps to bring more relaxation and equilibrium into the everyday life with regard to the newly arranged priority list. For example, if you are very lucky enough to jog through the forest with your dog, then this should not only be on your schedule once a week. So, realign your life, plan your time according to your priorities and eliminate as many stress factors as possible for a stronger inner balance!
Goals and Tasks
Some people find it extremely helpful to structure their own goals and tasks better and thus integrate more relaxation and balance into their everyday lives. Various methods can be used to classify tasks. One effective method, for example, is the Eisenhower method, in which the different tasks are divided into three categories and processed accordingly:
- Urgent and important
- Urgent, but not important
- Important, but not urgent
- Neither urgent nor important
If you now sit down once a week - at best Thursday evening to start the weekend in a relaxed way - and plan your next week according to this principle, you are freed from planning the completion of your tasks on a daily basis. Finally, the order is clear. A good goal is always to complete two to three tasks a day. There is a chance that many of the "neither urgent nor important" tasks will disappear completely from the list over time, or that you will forego performing them in the first place. This scheme can be applied both in professional and private life for the organisation of projects and challenges.
In order to find out the importance of the different tasks, it is of course fundamentally important to find your own big goal. No matter whether this is the start into self-employment, the restructuring of everyday life or the improvement of nutrition. It is not easy for many people to clearly define their own goals. So sit down in a quiet moment and consider your personal goals for the next 12 months. It is helpful not to add 5 overwhelming tasks to the list, but to combine a healthy mixture of big and small goals, because you don't want to overtax yourself. Great goals could be to finally start jogging, to inform oneself about the keeping of cats or to plan a longer stay abroad. Determine when you want which goal to be achieved and divide large goals into smaller subgoals so as not to lose track and always approach the realization motivated.
Breaking down stuck patterns of thinking
Maybe taking over a new project causes pure stress for you and your colleague? He's so happy he almost jumps up in the air. So it is rarely the situations themselves that are negative per se and thus trigger stress in us, but rather our thoughts and our evaluation of this situation. In most cases, however, these are not conscious decisions, but patterns of thought that have been practiced for years and now need to be broken up.
In order to track down your thought patterns, you have to keep a corresponding diary for a few days or weeks. Whenever you feel stressed, open a new entry in this diary. At best you start with this entry as soon as the first stress wave is over and you have a clear head again. Then consider exactly in which situation you felt stressed and which mental evaluation of the situation you were present in exactly that moment.
- Your boss is handing you a new project.
- They feel stressed and under pressure.
- Your thoughts about taking over the new project were: I will never be able to do that, when should I please do that, I am not competent enough for this project.
In the second step, you now consider a neutral and positive evaluation, which can replace your frequently used negative evaluations.
- Neutral: Yes, I'll write that down in my diary right away.
