Your task overload

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Amrit Sadhana [1]

It is a common sight these days to watch the younger generation working on the laptop with a mobile phone hooked in one ear, watching the latest episode of a favourite soap serial on the TV and trying to answer the landline simultaneously. The elders in the family get dizzy just by watching them. The youngster says, “We are living in a multitasking world, mom. Cool it!”
Surrounded by 3G phones, iPads and iPods we are no doubt living in a multitasking world; and it might seem that people are more efficient and happier than the older generation but the opposite is true. People who regularly juggle various electronic activities are more distracted and dissatisfied because they are stretching their brain beyond its limits.
Research shows that multitaskers have more trouble focusing on a single issue and experience more stress. Even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. They crave for the stimulation they get from the electronic gadgets and they no longer live fully in the moment.
There have been lots of researches on the brains of multitaskers and the findings are alarming. Daniel Siegel, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA Medical School in America, says, “Multitasking denies us essential pauses in our mental space. We need this time to develop our inner resources and grow neural connections in the cortex humanitatis — the part of brain that makes us civilised creatures. When you do several things at once, you tend to do them on autopilot and fail to engage the parts of the brain that form strong neural connections.”
Multitasking is good for surface learning though. But life is not lived on the surface; unless you dive deep into each moment and extract juice of life which is at the bottom of the experience, you don’t feel fulfilled.
Doing several things at once may delude you into believing that your capacity to focus has increased. But it only means that you can move your attention rapidly from A to B to C. This results in lack of sleep, not being able to relate to people, losing connection with oneself.
Now scientists ask people to give a break to the brain by practising techniques such as focusing on non-verbal cues when we are conversing with people, being more aware of what we’re thinking and spending less time multi-tasking.
It seems meditation is the urgent need of the hour. However, the Osho mantra for multitaskers is: “Don’t allow yourself to run all over the world. Come back home. If you can remain aware and relaxed around the clock, you will know the beauty and the grace of every moment, of every inch of life.”

Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.