Multi-tasking is Impossible
Weekly Word # 12 ~ August, 2007
I read the results of a big survey recently, asking people about
how they multi-task, and why they do it. As you might guess, the main
reason people said they do more than one thing at once is because
of the pressures of time—there is SO much to do, and SO little
time! They spoke of “time speeding up” and “time
flying by.” I confess I have used that language in the past
myself, although I am not sure what it means.
Some of the things the people said they did to multi-task were a
bit scary: They read the paper, watched a DVD, ate breakfast, applied
make-up, and/or changed their baby’s diapers while they were
driving. Other choices were a bit more benign, such as always reading
while they were eating, and listening to instructional audios while
walking in nature.
If time is speeding up, and we have more to do than ever before,
it seems to make sense to double up and try to do more things in less
time. We drive faster, talk faster, eat faster and faster food, and
sleep less. And we multi-task. Maybe.
I would like to suggest that the idea of multi-tasking is a myth,
and the antithesis of living a well-lived life. Have you ever actually
tried to direct your attention to two or more places at once? It is
impossible. “You can only serve one master.” Your attention
can only be directed to one person, event, object, or task at a time.
In so-called multi-tasking, what you are doing is directing your attention
back and forth from one place to another, sometimes so rapidly that
you are not aware there is a disconnect in the process.
Let’s say you are a mother, and you are out for a walk. You
are getting exercise plus perhaps pushing your baby in a stroller,
and talking on your cell phone. You are not doing three things at
once; you are moving your attention back and forth between three things
very rapidly. Your attention is actually being fragmented by the experience.
An American swami used to tell his students: “If you are going
to eat, eat. If you are going to read, read. But don’t eat and
read!” One day a group of students found him sitting eating
and reading. The said, “But Swami, you told us to eat or read!”
He looked up from his breakfast and said: “If you are going
to eat and read, eat and read!”
Most of us do not have that ability, and perhaps the Swami did not
either. Next time you think you are doing two or more things at once,
stop and see. Aren’t you actually doing two or three things
back and forth, back and forth, back and forth? And if that is the
true nature of multi-tasking, where is your attention NOT? I would
suggest that your attention is not in the moment, in the Now of the
Eternal Present.
I would also like to suggest that a life well lived is a life lived
in constant communion with the Present Moment. The only way to live
that life is to train your attention to be focused on the feelings,
sensations, and surroundings of your human body in the moment. How
does the air feel? How does your relationship with that baby feel?
What does your body feel like, walking? Do you see the clouds, and
the hundreds of green colors in those trees? Are you aware of the
phase of the moon tonight? Does the intense awe of creation wash through
your feeling body with such intensity you can hardly contain it? That
is the joy of Life. That is Dancing in Joy With Life. The Joydancer.
Perhaps time is not speeding up. Perhaps is it us, speeding through
life, running to reach some elusive goal of completion and success.
We have to get it all done, we have to do more, be more, better, faster,
more, more, more. There is no end to that race, and when you get tired
of running it, you may discover you missed the scenery, awe, and juice
of Life along the way. I encourage you to not let that happen.
Life is happening right now. Where is your attention?
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