I believe in focus

I believe in focus

When I multitask, my heart beats faster, I get nervous more often, I reach for sweets more often, I react aggressively when someone disturbs me. I get tired and frustrated faster. I am not focused, I make more mistakes. I am not happy, but restless deep inside.

“Multitasking” - the dictionary translated multitasking for me as when a person forces their brain to do several tasks at once.
I have been multitasking for a good part of my life, and even today I often find myself unable to stop it. But what I have progressed is to recognise it. I know exactly when I am “multitasking”. I have also found, in chairing the Excellentia Business Excellence Club, that this has become a value among businesswomen, a virtue, something we women like to boast about. I also beamed when someone said to me, “You are a true multi-practitioner. Today I have a different outlook, today I am happy to say NO when someone wants me to do more than one thing at the same time. Especially when I stop myself.

When do I “multitask”?
When I'm driving and talking on the phone.
When I'm eating and looking at my phone/watching TV/reading the newspaper/conversing at the same time.
When my children explain something to me, I cook.
When I'm out for a walk and talking on the phone.
When I'm on the phone and I'm writing an email.
When I'm brushing my teeth and I'm walking around the house picking things up (my daughter stops me when I'm doing this)
When I'm working on the computer and I'm telling the kids what to do.
When I'm in front of the TV and on social networks at the same time.
As I write this blog and hang up wet clothes in between.
When I'm waiting for my potatoes to boil and I'm obliged to write an email (which is why I ALWAYS go over the edge)
and on and on I could go.

Why focus and not “multitask”?
When I multitask, my heart beats faster, I get nervous more often, I reach for sweets more often, I react aggressively when someone disturbs me. I get tired and frustrated faster. I am not focused, I make more mistakes. I am not happy, but restless deep inside.
For me it means focus, calm work, because I am focused on one thing. Focus gives me courage, professionalism, calmness, focus gets me to my goal quickly.

Who am I learning this from?
I read, listen and learn a lot about people who have left their mark on our lives. World-famous and lesser-known inventors have spent a lifetime focusing on their ideas and bringing them to their goal. Their goal is lived by everyone on this planet today.
A real-life example:
Thomas Edison conducted more than ten thousand experiments before finally demonstrating the world's first working light bulb in 1879. A journalist asked him, “How does it feel to fail 10,000 times?” Edison simply replied, “”I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
And he succeeded because he persevered and kept his focus.

How to get out of “multitasking”?

1. Watch yourself and recognise it.
2. Admit to yourself that you are doing it.
3. When you see it, don't blame yourself.
4. Every day in the morning, answer this question: what do I want to do today? That's how you know what to focus on.
5. When you sit down to do the task you set yourself this morning, put your phone away and tell your family, colleagues and friends that you're going to do something in peace.
6. Take breaks between work, then focus on rest, children, lunch, partner, colleagues, walk, etc.
7. When you finish the task you've set your mind to, you feel like a millionaire, an inventor. You've done it.
8. In the evening, thank yourself for the focus you have chosen.

The gift when you stop “multitasking”
When you start focusing on every single thing you do, you start living in the moment.
What does this mean?
You start to observe, you start to use all your senses.
When you eat lunch, you taste it, you smell it, and above all, you enjoy the food in front of you.
When you go for a walk and just walk, you start to notice, smell, smile at passers-by, enjoy the sun or the rain, you are grateful for every little thing.
When you are in the moment, you are no longer in the past and no longer living for the future. You are in the present.
When you stop “multitasking”, there is no more fear of burnout.

REMEMBER, when you stop “multitasking”, you start living in the moment! And that is pure VICTORY.