Unitasking and Uninterrupted Time

You may have heard it before: our brains are not made for lots of interruptions, and we shouldn’t be multitasking.

This is because, when we multitask, we only get a boost, a feeling of doing more, when we keep on switching tasks. But the reality is that this constant switching between contexts costs brain energy. Without realizing, we actually are much less productive when we switch than when we stay on one activity for a longer period of time.

The choice is ours:

•  do we want to feel more entertained because we switched between different tasks, or
• do we actually want to feel calmer, and be more productive, or get deeper within one task.

Different answers are good for different situations. However, when you know that you should be unitasking about certain things, sticking to one task at a time is easier said than done. At this point, most of our connected gadgets do their best to interrupt us and compete over our attention.  Most gadgets come with notification systems enabled as a default setting, so we have to actively fight such default setting to get access to unitasking, uninterrupted productive time.

We need a battle plan.

First, we need to understand what the potential interruptions are. These are of two kinds - external and internal interruptions.

External interruptions are when something happens in the world, and there is a system that notifies us of this immediately. Whether the system is digital - facebook notifies us an acquaintance we haven’t talked to in 2 months has just posted; or physical - our colleague barges in to notify us something happened in their life, these are external interruptions. In the battle against interruptions, we need to master the notification systems of our gadgets, and the interaction patterns in which we could physically be interrupted.

Notification settings may take a while to dig through, until you discover how to turn them off. While doing this, I personally have realized that some systems are horribly obnoxious, and require turning off from multiple places before they stop displaying notifications. I enjoy buttons that let me turn off all notifications at the same time. Know where those buttons are, to be able to start sessions of unitasking and uninterrupted time.

Setting interaction patterns so that you cannot be interrupted generally requires pre-warning of colleagues regarding times when you want to be “off the grid”,  and may require pre-planning (adding slots in the common calendar where you are not to be disturbed), or training - saying NO to being disturbed a bunch of times until people learn to let you be in the time slots you set aside, and if it's family members, learn that you will come back.

Generally, this requires perseverance on our part. One way to handle this is to decide on a specific response to interruptions before being interrupted, and stick to it. This response depends on the situation and the person, but a default variant can be “Sorry I cannot help you or listen to you in detail right now, because I am in a time chunk I set aside to work without interruptions to this project. Could you please come back to me later (after this time slot)/ talk to me about it in our next meeting / write to me an email about it if you tried to solve it on your own and things did not work out? I will get back to you as soon as I can”.

Whatever you do, do not change your answer from a NO to a YES unless someone has their lives in danger. Saying YES after you said NO only makes people believe that, given enough persuasion, your mind can be changed, and the boundaries you set are not real. Even worse, saying YES some of the time may encourage people to try to convince you much more often than if you say a boring and predictable NO many times in a row, because they may believe there is a secret chance at a random reward.   Rehearse your answer so that you don’t have to improvise under pressure. Put your boundaries in order, and then keep them there. The more you keep them in place, the more you will end up respecting yourself, and people will take you seriously.

Now, if your external interruptions are handled, there remains only the "small" matter of internal interruptions.

Internal interruptions come from a different source - ourselves. And, depending on how tired we are, how badly we need entertainment, or how ingrained our habits of checking our mail or phone every 5 minutes, they can be easier or harder to master.

Suffice it to say that a personal analysis is best in this case, as we know ourselves better than anyone else does.

Establish what are your triggers to interrupt yourself.

Is it that you look at your phone every time you are bored, hoping for something to happen? Or is it that you check your email whenever you are anxious, thinking something may happen?

Whatever your triggers, learn to be aware of them, and put things in place that allow you to distance yourself.  Such steps can be very simple, and provide a lot of protection. For example, close the mac mail app NOT to see how many emails are there. Or move the mail shortcut altogether.  Close browsers if you know you are easily dragged into internet binges, log out of social media if the extra step of logging in will give you the time you need to think “what am I doing?” and stop yourself.

But most of all, stay aware of the fact that this, like so many other things, is a habit. Notice how often you interrupt yourself. Ask yourself why. And try to notice it earlier and earlier, whenever you simply tend to interrupt yourself => if you feel the impulse hard to control, just postpone that interruption for another minute or two. And try to last longer and longer on spans of time on which you do not interrupt yourself.

Whenever you are ready to practice creating uninterrupted time habits, enroll in the mission.