Moving towards monotasking yet?

Good day!

Yes, it's another post on the "horrors" of multitasking! Can you tell that it's something I feel strongly about???

I'd love to hear about any experiences you had while trying to "monotask." It isn't an easy transition to make - we have generally trained our brains to skim across things rather than focus. Plus, the fact that women are simply BETTER at multitasking than men makes the challenge to focus even greater.

And of course sometimes it simply is necessary that we juggle more than one or two things at a time. That is the reality of our current social structure.

What I would like to do, though, is impress upon you that there are many instances in which you can focus on one thing at a time and have bigger results.

Let's use eating as an example. Many of us eat while we do other things. We may be driving, talking on the phone, trying to get our kids dressed in their sports uniforms, or watching the news while we shovel food down our throats.

What is the consequence of eating while doing something else? How can you actually TASTE the food if your attention is somewhere else? Yes, you might be feeding your body important nutrients and calories it needs to get through the day.

But my guess is that you feel dissatisfied with your food choices. Taste, texure, and feeling satiated are all important aspects of eating. We feel less satisfied and more discontented when we deprive ourselves of those aspects of food.

Plus, if we aren't paying attention to the food going into our mouths, we also aren't paying attention to the signals our bodies give us that we are full (or still hungry). We then develop the habit of eating until all of the food is gone, rather than eating only until we are full. How often do you feel bloated and over-stuffed after eating mindlessly?

Or how often do you realize that you've made your way though an entire bag of chips while watching a movie - and you don't even feel full? Or you can't remember even EATING the chips?

We just aren't paying attention! And so we feel dissatisfied. I'll bet many of you can guess what we do to try to FEEL satisfied - we EAT SOMETHING ELSE!

Now we have calories upon calories piling up in our bellies, and eventually on our hips and thighs...

The next time you eat, think about eating. Resist trying to drive or watch TV or read or do anything other than thinking about the food you are eating. Consider the difference in the amount you eat and how satisfied you feel as a result of focusing only on eating. Enjoy your food, and you will find you need less of it than you currently eat.

Please share your thoughts and experiences, either here on this blog, or by emailing me! I really want to hear from you!

Warmly,
Anita