Overwhelming and over thinking

Sometimes doing a lot and even just thinking a lot at the same time becomes too much to be productive. Focusing on one thing at a time is much more efficient. In one psychology class my senior of high school, this phenomenon was researched. The class was separated into two groups that each got a same set of multiplication problems. The task was to finish all the multiplication problems and write a long text message that was written on the board. One group was allowed do one thing at a time, the other had to alternate between doing the math and texting.

What was interesting was that the group that performed one task at a time was significantly faster than the group that alternated. So the group that went from doing the entire math set then switched to the text message was faster than the group that alternated. This means that the mind is more efficient when focusing on one singular thing. Here's a podcast from psychologists Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Robert Duke explaining more about the topic. Now lets try and apply that experiment to the expectations of your long term goals. 

There are a lot of variables to think about in a day. In a 20 year old college athletes life there's working out, working in general to make money, gain experience in your field of study, get good grades, network your area, and even have a little bit of fun socially. Organizing all these activities into your mind throughout the day can be difficult.

There are only 24 hours each day. How you spend the limited time you have can make you a productive person or not. The small experiment above showed that focusing on one thing makes the brain more efficient. Being more efficient in one activity equates to more time for another activity. 

This is why goals are important. Each morning having an idea to wake up to and something to spark your mind will get your brain focused. Having a burning desire to conquer a little goal you set for yourself each day will allow your brain to be time efficient. 

So each night before going to bed, try and think about what the next day is going to hold and what you want to accomplish within that 24 hours, or the 16 hours you're awake. Maybe even write down time slots in which you do certain activities. Being accountable to yourself on paper holds a lot of weight and can relieve you of using up your cognitive capacity throughout the day. 

Doing this will stop your brain from wondering the questions of: What am I going to do today? What do I want to focus on? How much time do I need to spend on that? Be organized before hand, that way your brain doesn't get overwhelmed and shuts down completely.

Eli