Multi-tasking is not good all the times

O-zone One thing at a time Studies show that multitasking is overrated. Instead, you can be highly effective by learning how to focus on being a serial tasker Vinita Dawra Nangia  TIMES NEWS NETWORK      HOW can anyone focus on any one thing in today’s world? It seems near impossible, and yet people must be doing so, or there would be no success stories anymore! A lot has been said in praise of multitasking, but the truth is that the world’s most successful people have never been multitaskers; they are people who have concentrated on their work and goals with intense passion and deadly focus. Do you think Sachin Tendulkar could have made his centuries if he had not had single-minded focus? Could successful industrialists make their billions if they had been busy multitasking? Would great authors manage their magnum opuses doing several things at a time?      The mantra of successful people has always been ‘focus’. One thing at a time, as our elders taught us. And now science backs this intuitive wisdom. Neuroscientists have found that the human brain isn’t equipped to efficiently perform more than one task at a time. Says Dr Rene Marois, associate professor at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, US, “People always address problems one at a time, though they may do it so fast, it feels like multitasking! What we are actually doing while multitasking is forcing the brain to switch from one task to another, which naturally results in loss of focus, time and energy.” Comparative brain scan studies show that multitasking slows down our reaction time, resulting in more accidents, less efficiency and socially-unfriendly behaviour.      The human brain is biologically wired to pay attention to new stimuli — be it an unopened email, a new tweet, a response on Facebook, a phone call, or even a car passing by as we sit working in front of the window. It comes naturally to us to lose focus on the activity at hand and be distracted by anything new. Experts say that when we multitask, we are actually just giving ourselves “a fix”, because any new stimulation releases the feel-good neurochemical dopamine, which gives us a natural addictive kick. And so, in the middle of writing an article, I will be tempted to check the new mail that dropped into my mailbox, or go back to the article I left open on another window, or be distracted by the new book that sits waiting on my table. While cooking, I will talk on the phone or answer an SMS.      In order to be effective, we need to fight, rather than feed this proclivity to be seduced by the new. One by one, is the real mantra. Be a serial tasker, rather than a multitasker. Like with anything useful, developing focus too needs commitment and practice.  • Prioritise tasks  • Build focus by setting aside exclusive time to deal with challenging tasks  • In that space of time, turn off the TV, log out of your email, shut down multiple windows on your computer and switch off your phone. Let people know you are busy and do not want to be disturbed.  • Try and understand your most and least productive periods. Some work best early morning, while others work better later in the day or late at night. Slot important tasks for your natural peak period.  • Do not allow your mind to wander; rein it in consciously and strictly to focus on the task at hand.  • Meditation is a great tool in building focus. Keeping the body still too helps.  • Do not stress your brain by carrying too many mental notes; put them down on paper or store them digitally. Check them once in a while.  • Take breaks when your mind begins to wander; keep your mind challenged with new interests and hobbies in your spare time.  • Your less productive time period should be used to check and answer emails and to engage in social networking.  • You need not read and respond to every SMS immediately. Effective people set time aside once a day for this task. The opinions expressed in this column are the personal views of the writer It’s Your Life — Best of O-zone by Vinita Dawra Nangia. Available at leading bookstores and shopping.indiatimes.com. Or call 8010058888/8010558888. for doorstep delivery

You are perfectly imperfect! - Vinita Dawra Nangia

To achieve perfection is not to be rigid and obsessive, but to let go and be yourself



YOU are perfectly average, quips the happy-go-lucky Kareena Kapoor to the uptight Imran Khan in Ek Main aur Ekk Tu. Understandably, he doesn’t known how to respond! To be average is anathema, but to be perfect at anything is considered wonderful — even if it is perfection at being average!
Cut to Black Swan, a movie I recently saw again on TV. Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a ballerina competing for the lead role in Swan Lake, is found unsuitable for the dark role. She is too “frigid” and “perfect” in her performance. The director, Thomas Leroy advises her to stop being a perfectionist and to lose herself in her role, preferring passion over flawless technique. “Perfection is not just about control,” he says. “It is also about letting go…”
We tend to look at perfection as achieving a ten on ten, doing something so well that it couldn’t be bettered! Such perfection spells the end of endeavour, of dreams, of aspiration. If in your mind you are perfect, the rest of life can at best be spent in maintaining and nurturing this perfection — that flawless skin, the perfect figure, the perfect score, that inimitable performance, a perfect musical rhythm or that perfect moment in time. Anything less would be disappointing.
Why does perfection need to be a punishing routine, leading to obsessive, rigid behaviour? Why should it rely heavily on judgement, and exclude normal life? Obviously, it isn’t meant to be a human trait. Human beings are designed to have flaws; perfection is meant for the Gods.
The quest for perfection actually is a search for certainty, for a sense of control. Anything that stays within specified limits is under our control. The moment shapes shift and take on a life of their own, we lose control and hence, power. We force ourselves to conform to set practices and standards to the extent we forget our true selves in the quest to be “perfect.” Here then is a new look at perfection. Let’s call it the perfectly imperfect! Perfectly normal. A letting go of rigidity, of fastidiousness, the obsession of being the best. To achieve perfection is not to be obsessive and punishing; it is a letting go and allowing natural flaws to be as they are. It is perfectly fine to be perfectly average! Imperfection is fluid, perfection is cast in stone. Progress requires imperfection. Cultures around the world have embraced the concept of the perfect imperfect, often introducing deliberate flaws in works of art, either for religious or aesthetic reasons. The world famous Amish quilt makers deliberately leave an imperfection in their quilts because God alone can be perfect. Turkish shipbuilders and carpet weavers reportedly do the same to remind themselves that perfection is the sole prerogative of Allah. One of the central principles of Islamic art is not to compete with God for perfection.
Great sculptors in India always deliberately left a flaw in the statues they carved — controlled imperfection. If a sculptor was making a Nataraja, for example, and it was too near perfection, he would introduce a flaw, mostly breaking a toe or introducing a mark that spoilt the perfection a bit. This was true of all arts. In one sense, it is believed that all that the Mother Goddess creates is perfect, but pure perfection can only be She herself.
Every Persian carpet included a God’s knot to indicate the weaver wasn’t even attempting perfection. Navajo rug weavers believe that the slight imperfection allows a route to creativity.
The Japanese principle of wabisabi is well known — beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Asymmetry and irregularity are deliberately introduced by the Japanese as a necessary ingredient of art. Zen potters deliberately leave glaze drips on pots as “controlled” imperfections to reinforce that “perfect is boring.”
Nina in Swan Lake, when in complete touch with her dark side and no longer the rigid innocent, gives a sterling performance, after which she says, “I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect.”