Can Multi-Tasking be killing my concentration?

[Rasheed]

Is multi-tasking (way I multi-task is for example: Listening to self help videos while eating, taking a shower) is killing my ability to concentrate?
I also want to mention that I do my daily concentration practice.
- Is concentration something to be practiced from moment to moment?

[Raptorsin7]

@Rasheed Yes, multi tasking will kill your concentration (i'm multitasking right now lol). You don't want your attention bouncing around like that because it's the opposite of what concentration. It's hard, i know i multitask way too much, but without concentration you can't go deeper into the meditation, and multitasking plus internet browsing will kill your attention/concentration. You want your concentration practice to bleed into your everyday life, and multitasking is the opposite of a concentration practice. I also highly recommend using a metronome during concentration practice, i find it very helpful.

[flowboy]

Yes, multi tasking is the antithesis of concentration, it is destructive and it annoys me that it's even accepted as a valid concept in main stream culture. I'm also planning to cut it out completely, so join me.

I've even gone so far as to not listen to anything, watch anything or read while I was eating. Just eating. It was weird but good mindful practice. I should reinstate that habit.

But, please do explain to me how to eat and watch videos in the shower

Edited September 27, 2019 by flowboy

[Bill W]

What is frustrating is other human beings. You are getting on nicely, focusing on one thing at a time, and then some bastard starts talking to you and competing for your attention. I yearn for the day when in society it becomes a crime to needlessly disrupt someone's focus and serenity. It's an invasion of consciousness. Assault and battery. 

Then of course, there is the shit we just do to ourselves. Like an act of self-harm on your effort to become more conscious and mindful. Self-sabotage. 

[Devi Shanti]

Oh my, this topic is so about me

I feel like I am "wasting time" if I just have lunch, for example, without studying something or cook with listening to a podcast or something like this. I think maintaining my brain busy with high quality information helps to avoid excessive thoughts while I am doing something silenciouslly. Is it the opposite, then? 

I am also struggling with lack of concentration

Edited September 28, 2019 by Devi Shanti

[Smurfinstein]

Yes, definitely... A few studies have shown we literally can't "multi-task"- You're only rapidly uni-tasking. Not getting ALL of any one experience. If you go a few truly mindful showers or meals and say, "meh, I want to listen to a track while I do this," then that time becomes "listening to a track" time while you mindlessly make yourself not stink or not starve, cool. But everything can be a mindfulness practice-- showering, eating, driving, cleaning house, etc. Worth giving it a shot all-in sometimes. Observe why you're "running away" from the mundane... is there anything there? Maybe not. But nothing to lose in taking it up as an intentional habit for a while just to see. The problem comes in when you need or want to concentrate and you find yourself habitually loading on. Good time to ask why. 

[Rasheed]

 To be honest, when I watch self-help videos while eating/having a shower, after I am done with the activity, my mind becomes clouded and I start to over-think.

 As opposed to, when I am listening to 432hz music while eating/having a shower, my focus enhances and I feel whole lot better. 

- What's your experience with these guys?

[Rasheed]

8 hours ago, Bill W said:

What is frustrating is other human beings. You are getting on nicely, focusing on one thing at a time, and then some bastard starts talking to you and competing for your attention. I yearn for the day when in society it becomes a crime to needlessly disrupt someone's focus and serenity. It's an invasion of consciousness. Assault and battery. 

Then of course, there is the shit we just do to ourselves. Like an act of self-harm on your effort to become more conscious and mindful. Self-sabotage. 

 That happens in my day-to-day as well. That's why I like to watch self-help videos while eating. Any time I try to just focus on eating, someone comes and start asking me whole bunch of questions, talking about low-conscious things...Best way I found to handle this is to definitely tell people to stop asking me questions. Most people get surprised by that and it forces them to stop talking. 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Rasheed

[Bill W]

5 hours ago, Smurfinstein said:

Yes, definitely... A few studies have shown we literally can't "multi-task"- You're only rapidly uni-tasking. Not getting ALL of any one experience. If you go a few truly mindful showers or meals and say, "meh, I want to listen to a track while I do this," then that time becomes "listening to a track" time while you mindlessly make yourself not stink or not starve, cool. But everything can be a mindfulness practice-- showering, eating, driving, cleaning house, etc. Worth giving it a shot all-in sometimes. Observe why you're "running away" from the mundane... is there anything there? Maybe not. But nothing to lose in taking it up as an intentional habit for a while just to see. The problem comes in when you need or want to concentrate and you find yourself habitually loading on. Good time to ask why. 

Nice post. I needed to hear that. ?

[pluto]

3 hours ago, Rasheed said:

 To be honest, when I watch self-help videos while eating/having a shower, after I am done with the activity, my mind becomes clouded and I start to over-think.

 As opposed to, when I am listening to 432hz music while eating/having a shower, my focus enhances and I feel whole lot better. 

- What's your experience with these guys?

432 hz is natural frequency found in nature, it does not disturb the psyche like 440 hz music today as most mainstream music is because they want you to be distracted. Intelligent and focused minds are bad for business and bad for the system.

[Scholar]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2014/10/08/multitasking-damages-your-brain-and-career-new-studies-suggest/

There have been some studies suggesting that Multitasking might cause permanent brain damage. With rat studies they found that after making the rats multitask, over time their problem solving skills declined permanently with no recovery.

No joke, but obviously rats cannot consciously train themselves to focus and concentrate, so there might be hope for us multitaskers.

[Rasheed]

4 hours ago, pluto said:

432 hz is natural frequency found in nature, it does not disturb the psyche like 440 hz music today as most mainstream music is because they want you to be distracted. Intelligent and focused minds are bad for business and bad for the system.

  So, having  432hz music in the background while doing some other activity, is not multi-tasking and can actually enhance focus and concentration?

[Scholar]

10 minutes ago, Rasheed said:

  So, having  432hz music in the background while doing some other activity, is not multi-tasking and can actually enhance focus and concentration?

No, multi-tasking is when your attention is being interrupted and switcihg between two or more different tasks. In the rat study what they did is create a noise and visual cue to break the concentration of the rats over and over, and at some point they would get worse at focusing in general.

Listening to music might not necessarily be multi-tasking when it is not distrupting your focus. When you are writing something and then suddenly you think of the music that you are listening to, for whatever reason, that will be harmful. When the music becomes background noise and you can fully focus on whatever task, then it is not multitasking.

Listening to a podcast while doing something for example can be viewed as multitasknig because your attention will switch between the podcast and whatever you are doing.

 

It's not all black and white, for example you could be driving on the autobahn and listen to a podcast and it might not really be multitasking. You should develope a sense for when it is happening, you will notice when your brain is not in a meditative state, when it is not flowing and when it is scattered, then it's not healthy. It all depends on how intensive of a task it is that you are doing.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Scholar

[Scholar]

But it is also subtle in that you might have this Forum open in the background, and while you are doing your task you keep thinking about this forum. Even if you are not actualling doing anything in the forum, that might be multitasking, as your attention becomes divided.

 

This is why it is important to create an environment that will cultivate focus. Turning off your internet even if you are not using it, so your brain doesn't have the feeling of being able to access it at any point, which will have an impact on your attention. Also when you are browsing, trying not to have many tabs open.

You can create rituals even, so that your brain knows when to start focusing, when it is time to pay attention. Learn from the whole Zen Minimalism culture, learn from the Japanese in general. They are a good example of creating a culture and environment of focus. Do the same with your digital environment, imagine what it would look like if a Japanese Zen master was to design it. You have to create an infrastructure which will support your ability to focus.

 

Focus is extremely valuable in our day and age. Just nailing down that one aspect will help you tremendously.

[Rasheed]

2 hours ago, Scholar said:

But it is also subtle in that you might have this Forum open in the background, and while you are doing your task you keep thinking about this forum. Even if you are not actualling doing anything in the forum, that might be multitasking, as your attention becomes divided.

 

This is why it is important to create an environment that will cultivate focus. Turning off your internet even if you are not using it, so your brain doesn't have the feeling of being able to access it at any point, which will have an impact on your attention. Also when you are browsing, trying not to have many tabs open.

You can create rituals even, so that your brain knows when to start focusing, when it is time to pay attention. Learn from the whole Zen Minimalism culture, learn from the Japanese in general. They are a good example of creating a culture and environment of focus. Do the same with your digital environment, imagine what it would look like if a Japanese Zen master was to design it. You have to create an infrastructure which will support your ability to focus.

 

Focus is extremely valuable in our day and age. Just nailing down that one aspect will help you tremendously.

 Thank you! Very helpful! I appreciate you.

[JustThinkingAloud]

Our mind likes to be optimally active. Whenever it’s not fully active, it will fill the void with more tasks, that’s why we have a tendency to multitask. Whenever it’s too busy, you will have problems remembering new information that you’re trying to put in.

If you want to fully concentrate on one task make it more challenging on your mind to fully occupy it and use simple activities to analyze and integrate new information eg when I’m eating I’m thinking about what I’ve read and trying to put it together with my existing knowledge or thinking how I would use it in practice. This is as important as learning new information.

[Rasheed]

18 hours ago, JustThinkingAloud said:

Our mind likes to be optimally active. Whenever it’s not fully active, it will fill the void with more tasks, that’s why we have a tendency to multitask. Whenever it’s too busy, you will have problems remembering new information that you’re trying to put in.

If you want to fully concentrate on one task make it more challenging on your mind to fully occupy it and use simple activities to analyze and integrate new information eg when I’m eating I’m thinking about what I’ve read and trying to put it together with my existing knowledge or thinking how I would use it in practice. This is as important as learning new information.

How does that affect your eating? Personally, when I do that, I start eating very fast, without properly chewing the food, which is not good for digestion...

[JustThinkingAloud]

5 hours ago, Rasheed said:

How does that affect your eating? Personally, when I do that, I start eating very fast, without properly chewing the food, which is not good for digestion...

Interesting, why do you do that?

Nothing's unnatural about my eating habits. You can’t constantly control your thinking, you’re thinking when you’re doing other things whether you like it or not. The whole point is to make the thinking worth it and productive.  

Edited September 29, 2019 by JustThinkingAloud

[Rasheed]

7 hours ago, JustThinkingAloud said:

Interesting, why do you do that?

Nothing's unnatural about my eating habits. You can’t constantly control your thinking, you’re thinking when you’re doing other things whether you like it or not. The whole point is to make the thinking worth it and productive.  

 I agree with your point, but for me to be honest, eating is another form of meditation, when I eat, I really focus on it, and it becomes a meditation for me.

 What I also understood is that we can be multi-tasking unconsciously, what do I mean by that?

 When I am eating for example, I can start thinking about something else without intention, and at that moment, I am multi-tasking unconsciously. Or when I am doing static stretching, I can start unintentionally listening to someone else talking, while I am stretching, that is multi-tasking too.

 So, what I concluded is that to really develop great concentration, I need to be really mindful throughout the day too, just turning off some music is not enough.

 Turning off the music is the fake growth. Real growh would be to become more mindful, regardless if music is on or not.

On 9/28/2019 at 6:02 PM, Scholar said:

No, multi-tasking is when your attention is being interrupted and switcihg between two or more different tasks. In the rat study what they did is create a noise and visual cue to break the concentration of the rats over and over, and at some point they would get worse at focusing in general.

Listening to music might not necessarily be multi-tasking when it is not distrupting your focus. When you are writing something and then suddenly you think of the music that you are listening to, for whatever reason, that will be harmful. When the music becomes background noise and you can fully focus on whatever task, then it is not multitasking.

Listening to a podcast while doing something for example can be viewed as multitasknig because your attention will switch between the podcast and whatever you are doing.

 

It's not all black and white, for example you could be driving on the autobahn and listen to a podcast and it might not really be multitasking. You should develope a sense for when it is happening, you will notice when your brain is not in a meditative state, when it is not flowing and when it is scattered, then it's not healthy. It all depends on how intensive of a task it is that you are doing.

 You are 100% right, I thought multi-tasking was very black and white but that is not the case. That' a great insight I will apply. Thanks. 

[Rasheed]

On 9/28/2019 at 5:57 AM, Devi Shanti said:

Oh my, this topic is so about me

I feel like I am "wasting time" if I just have lunch, for example, without studying something or cook with listening to a podcast or something like this. I think maintaining my brain busy with high quality information helps to avoid excessive thoughts while I am doing something silenciouslly. Is it the opposite, then? 

I am also struggling with lack of concentration

 From what you said, I think your problem is not that you lack concentration, your challenge is that you believe that you lack concentration, you unconsciously adopted a self-image of a person who lacks concentration.

 To better underatand this, I advice you listen to Aaron Doughty's podcast episode about Self-Image. I am confident it will change your life for the better, here's the link: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9leHBhbmR5b3VyYXdhcmVuZXNzLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz&episode=NGJhNDc5ODZjMjljNDFmYTlhODg0NmNiNjA4OGUzODU&hl=en-GE&ep=6&at=1569829488551 

 I had same challenge with Visualization. I unconsciously adopted a self-image of a person who could not visualize and was not able to clearly see his visions. I became aware of that which then allowed me to consciously change my visualization self-image.

 I changed it. I start believing that I can actually visualize. I start telling myself that I can vividly see and feel, everything I visualize. As a result, my visualization practice became 1000x more vivid and enjoyable because now as a result of my shift in self-image, I am able to clearly see and feel my visualizations. 

 As Ralph Smart likes to say: 'It's all BS.' --- It's all belief system.