Attention, Multitaskers!

I'm old enough to remember when computers came on the scene. I was a legal secretary when I first began using one. The attorney I worked for at the time was soooo excited to see that a printer was spewing forth the product of one of my previous assignments, while I was in the midst of another, at the same time answering his phone to schedule a new client. Computers took multitasking to the next level, before multitasking even became a catch phrase, let alone a common practice.

Employers who value quantity over quality encourage multitasking. They think they're getting more for their money. Either they don't realize that dividing one's attention dilutes it, or they don't care. But the fact is (borne out by neuroexperimentation by scientists,) we only have so much mental energy to expend. When we are focused on one task and giving it our all in order to see one matter through to the exclusion of all others, the result far outshines what our accomplishment would be if we were, instead, spreading our attention more thinly amongst many matters within a short period of time. This is fact, not opinion.

Multitasking burns us out faster. Most employers don't care. They use the "Dixie cup" method of employment. When one employee is used up (burnt out) they toss him or her aside without a second thought and grab another.

Multitasking also takes more out of us as individuals. It doesn't allow us to relax into one single task in order to allow the subconscious (through concentration) to guide us through a specific process and to support our conscious activity. In other words, multitasking is stressful. Stress blocks communication from the subconscious mind (90% of our brainpower) to the conscious part (the other 10%); therefore, when we multitask we work harder in general, availing ourselves of less of our brainpower, thereby holding ourselves back from achieving our full potential in any one of the multiple areas we are addressing. We limit ourselves in many areas instead of excelling in one.

Why am I raising this issue? Because anyone who drives and texts or talks on a cell phone at the same time, is multitasking. Dividing their attention and their energy. The quality of both their driving and their communication suffers. A cell phone is one thing. A moving vehicle is another, and drivers who say "I'm great at multitasking" are posing the greatest risk of all, to themselves and to others on the road.

If you can easily dismiss the possibility of doing damage to another human being because you are on your cell phone while driving, understand there is a psychological term for this. Denial. It's easy enough to kid ourselves into thinking, "That won't happen to me. I'm paying attention." What might make a difference in your thinking is this: Imagine someone you LOVE being hurt (or worse) by a driver who was texting or talking on his/her cell phone. How would you feel about that?

Let this feeling motivate you to put your cell phone, your cigarette, your coffee, your sandwich, your makeup or whatever aside while you are driving. You are in control of a moving object that weighs a ton or so. That means you need to BE IN CONTROL. Not semi, sorta in control. Totally, 100% in control. And hope that other drivers are as well.