The other day, as I was observing our pet dog, Fae, relish her meal, suddenly when the doorbell rang she left her food and sprang towards the door offering her usual noisy welcome to the visitor. In that moment of barking, she seemed to have totally forgotten about her meal, and it was not until the delivery person had left that she returned to her meal. She got back to her meal with the same relish, as if nothing had happened at all. Fae is wired to do only one thing at a time. She is always in the moment - whether enjoying her meal or receiving a stranger at the door.
I am often fascinated by the ability of people to multi-task. And in recent years I have also become a huge fan of mindfulness. Both these ideas of Mindfulness and Multi-tasking seem to have a significant number of followers. Perhaps one has more followers than the other, but we will leave that for the researchers to confirm. I was keen to explore whether we can be mindful and yet be able to multi-task?
As I shared in a previous blog, Mindfulness can be broken down into three components: Awareness, Attention & Acceptance. Our ability to pay attention to something or someone is a critical part of mindfulness. Science has established that the human brain is wired to process a certain number of bits per second and no more. This explains why when two people are speaking to us at the same time, we are unable to understand what they are saying. Or when our when we are trying to figure out the driving directions in an unfamiliar terrain, we tend to turn down the volume on the radio. Another key situation where attention is heightened is when feelings are at play. Say, when a mother is lovingly looking at her toddler taking her first steps; or when we are providing a friend with a shoulder to cry on. It would be hard to imagine these behaviours while multi-tasking on a smartphone! At the same time, there is an important role that 'awareness' plays along with attention. For example, when a surgeon is performing, they are sharply focused on the surgery while also aware of the pulse rate that the team is calling out. Or think of a head-chef in a kitchen where multiple dishes are being cooked simultaneously. This 'peripheral' awareness is an essential part of mindfulness as it allows the surgeon & the head-chef to take action as needed. In both examples, the attention and awareness is directed towards a single task or purpose. At the other end of the continuum, are a set of activities that do not choke up our attention bandwidth, but allow us to perform multiple tasks at the same time. For example, when we listen to music while driving, or chat with a friend while watching a movie. We seem to be able to seamlessly juggle multiple tasks of listening while watching the road. However, what happens if we are a new driver? Or when we miss a joke in the movie? We focus our attention once again on the primary task that we are doing, until our bandwidth is freed up to share with the other tasks. So to sum up, there are certain tasks that need us to be mindful. We can care, love, learn, nurture, appreciate taste or beauty, or play a musical instrument or a sport only with mindfulness. And then there are other tasks that we might be able to do simultaneously with our attention distributed over them, until one of those tasks calls for greater attention! #mindfulness #presentmomentawareness #multitasking #mindfulliving #coachinglife #lifecoaching #executivecoaching Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
The author, Anuj Chadha, is a Life & Executive Coach, Founder of Three Circles. At Three Circles, we come with a deep understanding of what it takes to navigate the challenges that life throws at us. We partner with our clients, listen to their life aspirations, and support them to break through the obstacles that seem to be holding them back. Life is too precious to be unhappy, unsure, or unfulfilled. Give us the opportunity to partner with you as you re-imagine and re-create the Life that you Love!