MON: Monkey Mind

To do to two things at once is to do neither. Chase two rabbits and catch none. Pick your era and region of the world and you’ll have a proverb about the general concept that multitasking does not actually work.

We are raised on the idea that multitasking is the key to unlocking efficiency and time management in our lives. If you’ve gone on a job interview, chances are the suit across from you asked you to name a time where you successfully multitasked your way to project completion, or asked you to rate your ability to do two things at once. Hopefully your answer was, “Why would I elect to do two things averagely when I can do one phenomenally?”

I doubt it, though. Since I am guessing you wanted that job and you capitulated.

Has anyone ever proven that multitasking is successful? Has anyone ever actually challenged that notion? In The One Thing, Keller discusses Clifford Nass’ determination to do so and after examining 262 individuals in a formal study he concluded multitaskers were lousy at everything and get this, “suckers for irrelevancy.”

Damn, son.

It’s been proven that we can handle mindless talks, such as walking and looking at our phone for GPS. But what we cannot handle are two tasks that require our focus, not our attention. If you are really lost, you will stop and look at your phone without thinking about it. You will no longer stroll, because now your entire focus shifts to find out where the hell you’re going. Matt Richtel earned a Pulitzer Prize for his work on human distraction and in it, he revealed that simply talking on the phone has the exact same reduction of cognitive focus on the road as driving drunk (40%). If you are having a focused conversation, you cannot focus on the road, as well. It’s just not possible from a cognitive load perspective.

Buddhists refer to this as “monkey mind.” With 4,000 thoughts entering our minds daily, Keller makes the obvious connection that our minds are desperately trying to take us away from our primary goal. We must not let it. If something as mundane as driving can see productivity drop by 40% when another task is introduced, imagine what happens when we start introducing distraction and focus to your main work, goals, professional aspirations, and yep, gym dedicated time.

“Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.”
-Steve Uzzell

-Dave

References: The One Thing by Gary Keller

Monday, 4.16.18

First, for Structure.
5 Double KB Front Squats
10 DB Side Raises
5 Box Jumps
Complete 4 Sets in 20 Minutes.
—
Then, for Conditioning.
5 Deadlifts @ 135#/95#
8/5 Push-Ups
5 Pull-Ups
Triathlon Medley
(x12 Minutes)