Tweet

Don’t Blame Mental Pause

Guest post by: Rebel Brown

Article Overview: Lately I catch myself in mid-action, trying to remember what the heck I was doing. Or trying to remember what I was going to do next, where I was going when I started up my web browser. To add insult to injury, the other night I cut my finger reaching for my phone on my kitchen counter. I'd just turned the lights off but I knew the phone was there. I simply forgot that I’d placed the knife next to the phone. I hurriedly reached for the phone, and sliced myself pretty good.

Don’t Blame Mental Pause

Lately I catch myself in mid-stride, trying to remember where the heck I was going. Or in mid keystroke pondering what I was getting ready to type into the browser. I'd just thought of it in the kitchen for heaven's sake.

To add insult to injury, the other night I cut my finger reaching for my phone on my kitchen counter. I'd just turned the lights off but I'd seen the phone out of the corner of my eye as I shut off the lights.

I forgot I'd left a knife out next to the phone. I reached for the phone and sliced myself pretty good. OOPS.

My friends and I are all women of a certain age. Those dreaded mental pauses. We laugh a lot about our aging hormones.

The truth is that my hormones are extremely well-managed by my fabulous physician. My blood is balanced at the same levels as when I was thirty something. So I really can't use those mental pauses as an excuse for my mental lapses.

I decided to pay attention to my brain and flow for a few days. It didn't take me long to find the real culprit. Myself. My multitasking, focused-anywhere-but-in-the-moment self.

I admit it. I'm a multi-tasker. Always have been. But the digital age made it so much easier for me to get my fix. Even as I am writing a blog, I'm jumping onto social media. As I'm preparing a meal, I'm thinking about an article, running to my office to make a note. Of course once I hit my office I'm back on social media - just for a few minutes. But then I go back into the kitchen and can't remember what I was doing - or I forget what I was doing while I'm Tweeting away and something burns.

Sound familiar?

We all fall prey to the destructive forces known as distraction and multi-tasking. In my case - their impacts are pretty significant.

I experimented last week. I committed to focus on the task or moment at hand.

• I limited my social media sharing to specific hours of the day. I shut Tweetdeck and Facebook and everything else down in between those hours.
• I cleaned off my desk and only placed one project folder on it at any time. No distractions.
• When I was in the kitchen cooking dinner or downstairs working out, I didn't get to run back to my office to jot a note. I did keep a notepad around so I didn't lose the ideas.

I got more done last week than I have in ages. No mental pauses, no multi-tasking.

Why? Because I focused on a single task at a time. I didn't allow myself to avoid finishing some writing by hopping onto Twitter. I didn't get to avoid working on a client project by jumping off to do some research on the web.

We all know the dangers and distraction of multi-tasking. Yet multi-tasking is a natural response to today's accelerating world. Unless we take the time to stop, ditch the gravity of multi-tasking and focus.

Last week I remembered the power of focus, of single-threading my creative force.

Now if I could only remember where I put my Mifi card and power cord....

Related Articles
  What is the best way to develop my sales skills?
  Profitable Online Business Ideas and the Recession Part 2
  Contribution
  Take the Hit
  How can you make more of your customers open your emails?
  Know your magic numbers
  Social Networking or Social Distraction
  The ONE THING to be a Powerful Presenter: Pause
  Doing and the New Economy
  Blaming Others
  More crazy customers!
  Anger Management Practice The gift of forgiveness
  Blog With Pizazz - Your WordPress Blog CAN Be Interesting
  Hacking Facebook Password with the help of free hacker tools for everyone
  Get better results from email newsletters and promotional emails
  How do I find a passionate and purposeful mentor?
  Can you afford to make your email marketing more targeted? Can you afford not to?
  7 tips for better speaking
  Are you a Star?
  9 Simple Tips for Better Presentations

Article Tags: focus, mental pauses, multitasking, rebel brown



Related Forum Posts
Re: How to Promote Your Blog – The Definitive Guide to Promoting - Great Post! Dont forget to put your blog in Anchor Text For SEO purposes for the keywords you want when getting backlinks (for example with article marketing)...Very important. You can conquer quite a few small Niches and get your site on the number 1 spot in Google!
Re: Due Diligence, Market Research.. Ahead of the curve. - Congrats! A few months ago I wrote extensively on market research. Check in the Inventors corner for the posts. Let me know if I can help further! Dont spend a dime on a protype or advertising until you do some research! Jude
Re: Who hates cold calling? - I saw this and had to chime in. I HATE COLD CALLS. lol its terrible and a wast of my time. Something i have done is gotten online and found all the networking event happening in my area for the next 2 months and i try and go to about 3 a week. Even just for an hour. Dont bring any business cards. Just meet new people ask them alot about what they do, not too much about what i do and follow up the next day or 2. Has worked well
Gardening reduces stress - Hi Anon, In my case I think that my physical health does suffer - and I am pretty sure I am not doing a great job taking care of it. Finding the time to exercise seems impossible. The more probably reality is that I dislike going to a gym so it just isn't important enough for me to find the time. Mental health is different - I try to purposely set aside some time each week to recharge a little, sometimes it's a simple as going into my backyard and doing some gardening. Dead-heading flowers for about half an hour is pretty much stress free. If I really need a break I go to my cottage for the weekend - no cable, no internet and no phone.
Re: Businesswomen in the news - [quote="TheRainmaker":2susnvqs] Dont forget that the media is out for the media and scare tactics and bad news gets the coverage.... J[/quote:2susnvqs] This is true....


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Sales is a Flawed Model

How To Be Happy at Work? Acknowledge Yourself

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.