Physical Education: Multitasking Part II: Pros and Cons

I wanted to follow up on my previous post last week about the power of multitasking. It's a powerful tool. When we think about productivity and combining how many things you can accomplish in an hour, there's a lot of capability there.

But I failed to address something in it. And that's what today's information is all about.

The day I wrote it was one of the first in the last month that I felt a high level of energy. I felt healthy, capable, had a great plan in place, tons of focus, etc. It wasn't a normal day. I wasn't thinking about normal people.

Things took a turn back to my recent normal the day after. Productivity has been difficult, the holiday had me distracted, there's been some ups and downs in other things. I wasn't writing from a place of reality, and as I was doing some content organization over the weekend, the post bugged me a little. The message is still true, but it leaves something really important out.

Balance.

Because day-to-day life will give you different amounts of energy. When I'm living my best and with my healthiest habits, my health and energy levels are predictable. If I start eating like crap, if I drink any amount of alcohol, if I skip a workout, if I roll my ankle, if I get a migraine, if I lose sleep, or if I get a routine distruption, something is going to go wrong.

Because that's how life works. Almost like getting into a crash diet, constantly multitasking everyday is not sustainable. You may not be able to structure an hour of your life like that each day.

I believe it takes practice and certainly takes planning ahead of time. "I can definitely write that email while listening to that podcast while walking on the treadmill." I'll start at ten. "I can definitely do a check-in call to __________ while I walk the dog after dinner.""I can stream the next episode of ___________ while I wash the dishes and then couch cycle afterward."

Simple.

But it's not only difficult to plan out a whole day, there may not be ways to do that each day either.And when you do absolutely SLAY it, you might be mentally exhausted afterward.

"Ooh!! "Ooh!! Pick me! I have a connection!"

Yes, folks. I worked too hard again. Still paying the dues on that one.

So, to add to last week's post on multitasking, I want to stress:

-Make a plan and start with one hour.

-Check in with yourself a little bit after said activities finish. You good?

-Get a beverage and/or a snack.

- Stick in 5 minutes of a self-care activity. Breathing, visualization, reflection, just something to take your mind off of the high-powered activity to refresh the mind before moving on to something else.

-Keep a to-do list. Not just to organize, but to reward yourself. Make it fun and self-satisfying to get rid of the items.

I like to scribble things off paper. I love watching the legible words go away over the course of a day. It's amazing. Guess what's even more amazing? Scribbling off three items at once! What's fun for you? Reward that hour you just slayed it by doing 3 things at once! This should be much more helpful. It's realistic for one.