The BOLD (Rock the in Between)
One day this week I sank into my pillow mentally listing all the things I’d accomplished that day. The list was impressive and gratifying. It had been a very, very productive day. At the same time, there also days in my life where I cross the finish line with almost no sense of progress and little memory of what I completed.
Why is it that I am a productive rockstar one day and a tree sloth the next?
It all comes down to the relationship between my plans and my moments of choice and transition. When I take the time in the morning to think about how I want my day to go and about what I want to accomplish, I am clearer. When I commit to making good transition choices—to working my plan—the day rolls and the result is a lot of check marks on my to do list.
Since our brains can’t really multi-task (spoiler: multi-tasking is a myth) we can learn to make better transition choices to switch gracefully from one purpose-filled activity to another—even to rest at the best times.
The Whisper (Multitask vs Graceful Switch)
Multi-tasking is a hot topic. Because of the rapid pace of our culture, the sheer number of inputs, and the driving demand for us to get more things done, we want to embrace the idea that if we do more things at once, we will accomplish more. Studies suggest that the opposite is true. When we overload our brains with too many tasks at once, we diminish our computing power and damage our ability to perform any of our tasks well.
In order to protect our brainpower and the quality of our work, we must find ways to be effective as well as efficient. If multi-tasking is not the answer, then graceful switching is. As we move from one activity to another, we experience a moment of choice and it is in those moments that we move towards or away from our goals.
Graceful switching requires three things:
A clear plan
In order to know what choice we should make as we move from one activity to another, we need a good plan that guides our decision. Having concrete goals with identified sub-projects and a plan for action means that we can easily determine the next task we can take to further our progress.
Recall the tasks that you performed this week that had your complete attention. There was no need to think about what was next, no pause as you moved through each phase of the work. Then, when the work was complete or the allotted time was finished or your ability to focus waned, and you had a choice to make. It is time to decide how you will use the next portion of your day.
Awareness in the moment of choice
If we don’t notice that we have a choice, we will flow from one task to another without making a conscious choice. We find ourself scrolling, wandering, puttering.
Here are a few ways to grow our awareness in order to make more conscious choices.
- Before beginning a task, think through the next task and post it nearby. When you finish, your reminder will be in place to help you make your grateful transition.
- Prioritize tasks on your to-do list or provide yourself with why statements that connect to bigger goals. Understanding the value of your tasks and their place in your overall plan can help you to make good choices
- Utilize mindfulness exercises to mark the moment and shift gears.
- Plan for breaks. Graceful transitions may lead to rest and refreshment. Make sure that you are giving your focus a break with short walks, deep breaths, stretches, or even a few rounds of a favorite app game. In order to achieve livable success, we must sustain our energy with resets.
Discipline
The move from one high value activity to another will not happen without an exertion of will. We have to make a choice and then take the action.
It used to be that we had distractions. The neighbor’s kitten playing in the yard. An unfinished coloring book. Distractions are objects that draw our attention, disrupt our focus and entice you to stop what you are doing.
Now, in addition to distractions, we have attention enemies. Social media platforms and news feeds design their pop up engage your attention. The cat in the yard was not deliberately drawing your attention to augment his numbers to increase his advertising fees. The coloring book wasn’t running an algorithm to know how to entice you. In order to make good choices, we have to combat new, clever traps that have been set to capture our attention and destroy our focus.
In order to complete a graceful transition, we must be disciplined enough to stay connected to our plan, attentive enough to notice we have a choice and active enough to move to the next powerful move.
Graceful Transitions Are Possible
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