Do One Thing at a Time

While you’re reading this your attention is likely pulled in multiple directions. Maybe you just saw a push notification, or need to look up to check that you don’t miss your stop on the subway. Most of us are inundated constantly with demands for our attention. So I don’t need to tell you how stressful it feels. It can be tempting (and sometimes necessary) to try to attend to two tasks simultaneously. Sometimes, it’s harmless — like listening to a podcast while working out. Other times, trying to pay attention to more than one thing at a time costs us more than we might realize. What feels like productivity actually burns out our cognitive systems and increases our stress. Also, in most cases, trying to do more than one thing simultaneously is less efficient than taking each task one