Being mindful simply means to be conscious or aware of something. This could be something as simple as your breathing, the sky, what you are doing, thinking or feeling. Being mindful of our breathing, in fact, is one of the most basic and important things we all need to do more of.

Especially, while working. For example, while reading/ dealing with emails, a lot of people tend to hold their breath. I’ve caught myself doing it at times! In fact, there is even a term for it called “email apnea”, coined by Linda Stone.

With all the demands most people have today from taking care of yourself, your family, working and exercising to cooking and grocery shopping it can be hard to be mindful of anything we are doing. Most of us run on autopilot throughout our busy days.

And multi-tasking seem to have become a trend or something that many think is necessary in order to get things done. But there is one important thing to know about multi-tasking. Firstly, you may believe that you’re being productive when multi-tasking (which I also used to believe) but turns out we are really just switching our attention between different tasks. And as much as we may think this way of working is more productive than focusing on one task, research has shown this is not the case.

Research shows that switching between tasks during multi-tasking requires a lot of time and the more complex the task, the more time cost. And this in turn reduces efficiency when multi-tasking is a frequent habit. 

Some research has even proposed that multi-tasking reduces productivity by up to 40 percent. David Levitin, professor of behavioural neuroscience at McGill University means that switching between tasks ends up making us tired quicker than if we instead focus on one task at a time. Ariana Huffington says that multi-tasking kills creativity because whenever you create something, you must give your full attention to do so.

So next time you are texting while eating or trying to answer several emails at once try to remember that it is more effective to focus on one task at a time, this way it is easier to be mindful of what we are doing as well.

There are however certain times where I tend to multi-task because I think it works for me and maybe you will find it can work for you too. While exercising, specifically if your maybe walking or moving in a monotonous way, listening to books or something else of your interest can be a great way of multi-tasking and gaining something from it. Or why not when you are driving listen to a book, if you drive a lot, imagine how many books you can finish within 1 month for example. Of course it can also work while commuting long distances. In fact Brian Tracy, American-Canadian motivational speaker and self-development author (and a great inspiration to me personally) recommends this way of learning.

1. If possible try doing one task at the time and remember that this is more productive than switching between different tasks.
2. Be mindful of what you are doing by just being aware.
3. Be mindful of your breathing specially when you are working or noticing that your holding your breath while reading for example
4. Multi-tasking can be effective when done in the right way like listening to something knowledgeable while training, driving or commuting.

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