Multi-tasking ‘R” us

Why do one task well, when we could do four or five poorly?

Remember multi-tasking?

A better question might be – do any of us remember life before multi-tasking?

For those who might not remember, multi-tasking was the ability (or at least the promise of an ability) to do several things at once.

Who wouldn’t want that?

The problem, of course, was that multi-tasking was not a gift suddenly dropped down from the sky – multi-tasking was just a two-dollar term for task switching.

Task switching means dropping one task for a while, picking up another, and then(maybe) returning to that abandoned task.

In short, several tasks get dropped and are permanently left or disrupted, and at the end of the (literal) day very little is actually accomplished – except an industrial-scaled sense of frustration and multiple partially finished tasks.

In short, this is no way to run a household, or business, or career or life or government.

But it is a way to create messes – everywhere and on every scale.

Effectively completing a task, in most cases, requires one thing; attention.

It was no accident that the emphasis on multi-tasking emerged alongside what seemed like a national, if not global epidemic of ADD/ADHD.

Attention Deficit Disorder, in whichever compilation seemed to be everywhere.

Our inability to control our attention (veering from hyper-focus to fragmented) was something like a cultural phenomenon.

Attention is a very strange thing. Our work (and often our habits and entertainment) require attention. Our children (and pets) thrive on it and clamor for it continually.

We each have a finite amount of attention to give, and often have situations that require more than most of us have to give.

Attention is, by definition, clear and focused.

To fragment attention is to necessarily dilute it.

The most effective attention is a laser-like focus on the task at hand – until it is finished.

Fame is not attention

Modern cultures have a fascination with fame – obsessive attention with celebrities (of almost any category).

Most of us spend more time and attention on celebrities or franchise movies than on the actual humans and relationships in our lives.

Fame, and obsessive attention, both for those who give it and receive it, is not, in most cases a healthy sign. Adulation, even worship, of other people, is not something that draws out the better side of any of us.

We in our era, have many problems, challenges and issues that demand our fullest attention and threaten virtually everything we value.

But in light of these once-in-a-civilization challenges,  too many of us spend our energies, schedules and budgets on distractions.

And those large problems, over time, only get larger.

Attention is a luxury

Attention is the ultimate gift we could ever give someone.

Attention is a luxury - a luxury many of are convinced that we do not have.

Attention is a luxury without standard price or cost – except what costs us the most of all; our time.

If you have a dog, for example, you probably know that the only thing that dog wants from you is your attention.

Whatever your political philosophy might be, paying attention to a social problem is a step, however small, toward its solution.

What does love look like?

Several years ago I took a short course on film directing led by a well-known, long-time director.

Various questions emerged regarding how to best capture character or emotions could be captured and presented on-screen. One question jumped out - how does one present love on the screen?

He said that love was two things; taking care of and paying attention to.

It didn’t matter if were a boy and a dog, a man and a woman, or a man and his truck, love looks like taking care of and paying attention to someone or something.  

For a variety of reasons, many of us have lost our ability to pay attention to – or care for – almost anything.

The irony is that multi-tasking has not so much been embraced by us, it has seeped into and been absorbed by most of us without us even considering it. Multi-tasking has embraced us far more that we have absorbed it.  

Multi-tasking – otherwise known as dropping and (maybe) picking up again, and attempting to restart a disconnected thread of thought is the exact opposite of sustained thought and attention.

There is arguably nothing we need more than sustained attention on our problems and issues both large and small. Nothing is more important than paying attention.    

Love is showing attention. Dogs know it. Children know it. Spouses and friends know it.

Our homes, our families, even our yards and our personal appearance are all a continual reflection of the attention we give them.

There’s an old saying that every choice is an endorsement. How we take care of ourselves, the world around us, and everyone we contact – or how we don’t – is a living expression of what we truly believe.