This picturesque West Cork home with separate basement apartment is on the market for €695,000
This picturesque West Cork home with separate basement apartment is on the market for €695,000

Sarah Finnan

‘The Easter holidays are a fresh kind of hell when you have kids and a job’
‘The Easter holidays are a fresh kind of hell when you have kids and a...

Dominique McMullan

Annutri co-founder and award-winning businesswoman Anita Donoghue on the power of a positive mindset
Annutri co-founder and award-winning businesswoman Anita Donoghue on the power of a positive mindset

IMAGE

This Clontarf home was reconfigured to streamline the layout and maximise its views
This Clontarf home was reconfigured to streamline the layout and maximise its views

Megan Burns

6 classic movies worth watching over Easter
6 classic movies worth watching over Easter

Jennifer McShane

The friend zone: How to navigate finding friends as an adult
The friend zone: How to navigate finding friends as an adult

Sarah Gill

Supper Club: Fearne Cotton’s haddock burrito, punchy salsa and homemade guacamole
Supper Club: Fearne Cotton’s haddock burrito, punchy salsa and homemade guacamole

Meg Walker

New life has been breathed into this Victorian Portobello home thanks to a revamp that’s full of personality
New life has been breathed into this Victorian Portobello home thanks to a revamp that’s...

Megan Burns

This rustic four-bedroom home in Westport is on the market for €449,000
This rustic four-bedroom home in Westport is on the market for €449,000

Sarah Finnan

My Career: Archivist at Guinness Eibhlin Colgan
My Career: Archivist at Guinness Eibhlin Colgan

Sarah Finnan

Image / Editorial

How to Monotask


By IMAGE
29th Jun 2014
How to Monotask

Multitasking

If you do one thing today, it should be learning how to mono-task…

Multitasking – we love a bit of this. Toggling between browser tabs on a conference call while juggling a grande latte and a group chat on Google Hangouts can make us feel like the Grand Poobah of Productivity.? Then burn out hits. Ironic, isn’t it? Such is the curse of hyperconnectivity. Any contextual switch, like interrupting work on an important project to answer an urgent email, requires an equivalent mental gear shift. Too many of these and the recovery process placed on the brain can delay getting back into work mode by up to 25 minutes. Think of how many times you’ve pulled the old switcheroo today. Scary, isn’t it?

With time so precious a commodity, it’s important we value it as such. Thankfully, there’s a new paradigm afoot as monotasking becomes the latest workplace metric. If profit margins grow where attention flows, then consider it a form of mindful time management or holistic hustling. Need help focusing?? Take some toolbox tips from the experts below?

HOW TO DOWNGRADE FROM MULTI TO MONO:

LIMIT YOUR TABS

Arianna Huffington, chair, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, suggests keeping focus using ?Controlled Multi-Tab Browsing?, a tip from her mindfulness tome Thrive. ?Set a maximum number of tabs (say, four or six),? she says, ?and the (Chrome) plug-in will prevent you from opening any more than a set number until you are done.? As an author of fourteen books, mother to two children and syndicated columnist, we’re inclined to believe her.

2. SCHEDULE SAVASSANA

Motivational speaker, life coach and New York Times best-selling author Gabrielle Bernstein (Gabbyb.tv) suggests ?taking a fiver?: Try five minutes of lying down, palms up in total relaxation. Yoga fans will know this delicious repose as Savasana (Corpse Pose), where the body absorbs the benefits of one’s practice. Bernstein suggests visualising a light beaming energy into the body, recharging you from the inside out. Groovy.

3. THINK STRATEGICALLY

Tony Schwartz maintains we can Be Excellent at Anything – which is pretty sassy (and so happens to be the title of his bestselling book) but the man knows his onions. As CEO of The Energy Project, Schwartz believes sustainable high performance can only happen when we differentiate between what’s important and urgent. Got a pitch, creative project or strategy to nail? Establish ?full engagement?: That means regular, scheduled times for open-ended thinking. And unplug for God’s sake?

Annmarie O’Connor