Discover ten easy ways to stop multitasking and get more focused work done every day!
Growing up, I often got taken up by the illusion of productivity.
Attempts would be made to become prettier, smarter, and more successful. But over time, the goals I was chasing started to make me tired, anxious, and depressed.
If I didn’t get up early enough, or if my hair didn’t look great, I would feel defeated by the day.
Eventually, I couldn’t get through a single day without feeling like a failure.
That was when I decided something needed to change.
I started to make an intentional effort to slow down the pace of my life.
I decided to live my life in a way that felt authentic and suited to me.
Over time, I stopped striving for some of the things that the world said were important, like money, status and constant productivity.
One important change I made was to stop multitasking.
Studies have shown that multitasking isn’t actually the time-saver we once thought it was, anyway.
Not only that, but multitasking actually makes the outcome of our work worse and gives us a great deal of stress, even when we don’t notice it.
Quitting this habit changed so many aspects of my life for the better.
I want to encourage you to multitask less to save your sanity and your time.
It’s time to give an honest effort without worrying about how busy we look or how productive we may feel. Try out these ten tips to stop multitasking today!
Do you need more convincing to stop multitasking? Check out my post that tells you 10 ways that multitasking is hurting your life.
10 Ways to stop multitasking and boost productivity
Tip #1: Turn off all notifications
Multitasking doesn’t just mean doing things at the same time. It also has to do with switching tasks quickly from one minute to the next.
Checking your phone every ten minutes counts as multitasking, and it is making it harder for you to focus (even though it makes you feel like you’re getting more done).
To make it easier to focus on one thing, it is best for you to turn off as many notifications on your phone as possible. Better yet, put your phone somewhere you can’t see it so that you won’t even be tempted to look at it!
Related Post: 7 Digital Boundaries That’ll Free You From Your Smartphone
Tip #2: Close the email tab on your computer
This one is absolutely crucial to ensure that you’re not getting distracted.
Let’s face it, your emails are never going to stop flowing in throughout the day. You are not getting anywhere by checking it every hour.
You’re better off setting aside ten minutes a day to go through it and simply closing the tab when you’re done.
If you get a lot of emails, you can definitely spend more than ten minutes. Just make sure that you set aside one time to do it.
Don’t let it become something you do throughout the day. Studies have shown that this not only makes you less productive but also makes your body more stressed.
Related Post: How To Manage Your Email Inbox with this Simple, 10-Minute Daily Routine
Tip #3: Clear your workspace of all distractions
In order to focus on one thing, it is best to have few things to distract you.
You’ve already turned off notifications and closed your email. Now it’s time to clear out your physical space.
Remove anything that will remind you of other work that needs to get done.
Additionally, try your best to make your space a clean, comfortable one.
Related Post: How To Stay Focused With One Simple Mind Hack
Tip #4: Prepare your body for the task
Distractions can also come from your physical needs.
Before you start unitasking (the clever antonym of multitasking), try to make sure that you’ve prepared your body well enough.
Try to get a good amount of rest every night, make sure you’ve eaten well and keep water beside you in case you get thirsty.
Tip #5: Do a Brain Dump
When you try to stop multitasking, the hardest thing to control will be your own mind.
You will want to think about all of the things you have to do that day, and it will likely make it harder to be a unitasker in the process.
To combat this, try doing a Brain Dump before starting your task.
It will get all of your thoughts on paper so that you won’t feel you need to think about them so much while you are working on other things.
Related Post: How To Do A Brain Dump To Stop Overthinking Now!
Tip #6: Schedule Distraction Breaks
One thing that can make it easier to stop letting the distractions in is to schedule a time for you to get distracted.
Set aside time to browse on your phone, plan a time to let your brain wander, or set aside time to get a little task done.
Related Post: How To Use The Pomodoro Technique To Make The Most Of Your Time
Tip #7: Learn to say no!
This is an important one to help you be more productive in general.
It is a typical human habit to say yes to people, but a lot of the time we say yes when we really wanted to say no.
Instead of answering yes right away, tell the person making the request that you’ll get back to them and think of what your honest answer is before returning it to them.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no. This will stop you from wasting time trying to get out of something you already agreed to do and will keep you more focused on unitasking.
More from In Its Season: A Simple Morning Routine When You’re Not at Your Best
Tip #8: Start your day with the hard tasks
Your brain is not a machine that can run all day without any issues.
It will eventually get tired, and you will eventually lose the stamina you had to focus on one thing.
To effectively stop multitasking, it helps to start your day with more demanding activities.
This way your tasks will get easier as your ability to focus gets weaker.
By the time you get to the end of the day, it won’t matter so much if you are having more trouble focusing on one task at a time.
Related Post: A Spring Morning Routine for Success: 7 Tips You’ll Love!
Tip #9: Know your patterns so you can fix problems
When you first start the challenge to stop multitasking, you will discover that your brain struggles more at certain times than at others.
You might also notice that some tasks are more distracting to you.
It helps to do an audit for the first few days to see what kinds of things make you more susceptible to losing focus and what you often try to multitask.
Once you see where those problem areas are, you can experiment and try to fix them.
More from In Its Season: Morning Brainwash Routine: How to Start your Day Right
Tip #10: Practice mindfulness to get better at staying in the moment
For some people, mindfulness is a natural ability.
For others, it is a lot harder.
However, for both groups, it is something that can be improved with practice.
With practice, your brain will be able to stay focused on current tasks for longer periods of time.
You will be able to multitask less and be more productive as a result.
Related Post: How to Live in the Moment with Anxiety: 9 Habits
Whether you can implement all of these tips or just a few, you will be sure to see an improvement in your ability to stop multitasking.
Have patience wherever you are in the process and remember that productivity should not determine the success of your day.
Working hard is a good thing, but chasing after productivity is really not as important as it sometimes feels.
Give yourself room to grow and learn, and enjoy the process!
What tips do you have to multitask less?
Yes! I notice when I try to multitask I never finish anything or never do anything well.
Me too! Though, what’s worse is that sometimes I think I’m doing a good job multitasking but I’ll look back and realize that I was just too distracted to notice what a bad job I was doing!
Loved your advice on staying on task! Especially #6: Schedule distraction breaks. I think this is great because often times, I keep pushing onward and don’t think I should take those distraction breaks. But it actually gives you some time to take a forced break before the task efficiency starts to fade.
Yes, I’ve definitely found that trying to push through without allowing any distractions often leads me to get less work done in the end. Giving your brain time to relax every once in a while makes a big difference.
I really like your tip about setting aside specific breaks for distractions. I think this would help me focus a bit better! Tackling the hardest task first is something I need to remember as well. These are all great tips!
I’m glad you liked them! Yes, setting aside distraction breaks has probably been the most useful tip for me. It can be really hard to stay focused when there’s no break in sight.
I find that all of these ideas help when I need to focus. Working in a quiet, distraction-free place is key when I need to write, create, or learn something new.
Yes, I do best when I use all of these ideas, too!
Yes! Great tips, Genesis! I like to start the day with the harder tasks, too. My mind is usually clearer and I’m more motivated to get things done in the mornings. A couple from your list I NEED to adopt — closing my email tab and turning off notifications! I always get sidetracked by these things and I don’t need to even look at them…it’s just an annoying habit.
I definitely fall into that trap, too! Emails and notifications are deceivingly distracting because they seriously feel so productive in the moment! I am glad you enjoyed the tips 🙂
Such amazing tips. I like the idea of planning for distraction breaks. When I want to focus on one thing I always set a timer and dont allow myself to do anything else during that allotted time. It works great!
Setting a physical timer is such a good trick! It definitely helps to make it clear to yourself that this time is for work.