Sulagna Dasgupta

How To Successfully Switch Over From One Task To Another



Posted: Thursday, May 01, 2008

by
Love in India

Have you ever had to switch over from one task to another very quickly? If so, did you find it a little difficult to concentrate on the second task right after starting it? Did you find your mind straying towards the first task-dwelling on how it went, what are the things that are left to do etc.-even after you've started the second? If yes, you're doing what I used to do, and this is just for you.

A very common example of such a situation is, when you return home from work after a long and busy day, and want to spend quality time with your children. You want to ask them about school and homework or play with them, but find yourself unable to concentrate, with your mind firmly glued to what happened at work, how are you going to deal with the challenges you're facing now, etc.

The reverse also can be true-worrying about what you're about to face, and forgetting the task at hand, on which you should be concentrating right now.

So how do you switch over from one task to another successfully, so that you're able to do both of them with your full concentration? Here's how:

  • Take your mind off for 5 minutes (even less would also do) between the two tasks. Close your eyes and breathe deeply (I've already mentioned how to do it, but in case you've missed my previous post, here goes.)-inhale for 10 seconds, hold your breath for 5 seconds, and then exhale for another 10 seconds.
    • Meditate while doing so. Don't worry, it's not rocket science. Meditation is just another name for deep concentration. So while meditating, you concentrate, and the fun part is that, in this case, you can choose what you'd concentrate on!

    It can be spiritual, i.e. you concentrate on God. You can also use a mantra that you keep repeating in your mind, with as much concentration as you can muster. Or you can try to keep your mind blank, i.e. think about nothing at all, but this is of course more difficult than the other options.

    At least in this case, meditation is just an exercise for calming your mind. So it doesn't matter what you're concentrating on. But of course it has to be something that doesn't give rise to any emotion in your mind. That's why people are usually advised to practice spiritual meditation, or to keep their minds blank.

    Meditate for as long as it takes you to calm your mind, i.e. to stop it from straying to things other than the task you have at hand right now. But trust me, if you do it properly, it won't take more than 2 minutes at the maximum.

  • After that, tell yourself what you're about to do. Tell yourself that you want to do it. For example, "I want to know what Mary (meaning your kid) did at school. I want to have fun finding out what she did with her friends. I also want to know what sort of homework they're being set these days." See? It's about conditioning your mind to want to move to the task at hand, rather than lingering on something else.
    • Repeat these statements in your minds a number of times, i.e. until you find yourself thinking about it naturally. Keep your eyes closed while doing this.

    One word of caution-don't use negative statements about the thing you're trying to make your mind forget for the moment. For example, don't add a statement like, "I don't want to dwell on what happened at work." Though you want to make your mind forget, the mention of the thing will make your mind go back to it, cause it is already trying to do so, isn't it?

  • Visualize the task, and see yourself doing it. Try to form as vivid a picture in your mind as possible. For example, visualize yourself, sitting on a sofa, chatting and laughing with your kids. Do this simultaneously with the second step, i.e. while telling yourself how much you want to do it.
    • So next time you're switching over from one task to another, try these simple steps, cause you know very well, that the measly 5 minutes they'll take, is far far less than the time you'd have ended up wasting, if you had jumped to the second task, with your mind still attached to the first!

    Log on to www.loveinindia.co.in for answers to all your relationship related queries. Sulagna can be emailed at sulagna@loveinindia.co.in with individual queries and requests for specific love and relationship related advice. She replies to every one of such emails, and all of this is free.

    Sulagna is also an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. She is currently pursuing her Double Degree in International Management from the University of Bocconi, Milan.

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