How to be High Efficiency?

Summary: In the hectic pace of every day, how can you complete your to-do list on time and become a high-efficiency person? Can the methods such as handling multi-tasks at the same time, long-term focus, switching work scenarios, and putting important work in the morning help improve efficiency?

Source: Freepik

1. Is It Helpful to Handle Multi-Tasks at the Same Time?

Many people have a misunderstanding that being efficient means handling multi-tasks at the same time: writing a program, collecting data, replying to emails, listening to music, relaxing...

Actually, it's wrong. Your brain cannot handle multiple tasks at the same time; it can only process one by one. Therefore, what is actually happening when we are "doing multiple things ABCD at the same time"? It is the brain that concentrates on A, then switches to B, then to C, then to D...

Why? The reason is simple: The brain's attention is essentially the same thing as working memory, which has an extremely limited capacity (4 units). As a result: we can only store a very small amount of information in our working memory for the brain to process during the same short period of time. Once this load is exceeded, we have to clear out the previous information and rewrite it again.

Not only does this method not improve our efficiency, but in turn, it has two negative effects:

• When we exit from task A and switch to B, the brain needs a period of time to clear the cache and write new task information. Although the time spent is not too much, it will be significant after accumulation.
• When we switch from task A to task B, there will be a residual part of task A in our mind if it is not yet finished, which is called "Attention Residue". It takes up our cognitive resources and makes us have fewer resources to process task B.

Imagine how much energy and resources we have left to deal with the matters at hand when we go through multiple switches and pile up "attention residue" many times.

Source: Freepik

As a matter of fact, a study found that even the simplest "multitasking" - listening to music while working - can be harmful. (Threadgold et al., 2019)

The study tested a variety of different music, including music with lyrics and pure music. The result shows that the creativity, memory, and comprehension of testers all showed varying degrees of decline when they listened to music while working, no matter whether there were lyrics or not and whether the participants liked it or not.

Therefore, are we unable to multitask in all cases? Actually, there are exceptions. The only exception is when one of the two tasks you're doing at the same time is a super repetitive and mechanical motion that doesn't require any attention - this is the only case in which multitasking is possible.

Let's take a simple example: playing with mobile phones while walking. When we play with our mobile phones, we can "multitask" without any obstacles because the task of "walking" is an extremely simple motor task that is mainly handled by the cerebellum and does not take up the brain's resources.

However, as mentioned above, our attention will be fully focused on "playing with the phone", once there are rugged steps on the road or a car comes suddenly, It's easy for us to be injured as we can't make a response in time. (So do not play with the phone while walking)

In a summary, the first principle of high efficiency is :

If you have several tasks to do, make sure don't do them all at the same time. Make a priority of your tasks and break your time into multiple phases, focusing on only one task when you are in a phase.

2. Is It Helpful to Focus on Work for a Long Time?

Many of you may know "flow" and know that to be effective is actually to enter flow. So there's a question: Can flow last a long time? Or is it necessary for us to focus on long-term and non-stop work and devote ourselves to the flow?

Actually, it helps nothing.

The reason is simple: our attention is constantly "scanning", both for the monitoring of our surroundings and the activation of our inner thoughts. Once the important thoughts are activated, we will leave from TPN mode to DMN mode, or we can say that we are in the state of "wondering".

Although the state of flow can inhibit this kind of effect, it can't guarantee 100%. As time goes on, the probability of certain distracting thoughts within us being noticed, amplified, focused on will continue to rise.

How do you feel once it happens? You may feel: a sudden uncontrolled idea "bursts" into your mind, it may be something unfinished, or a certain concern about the future, or some kind of involuntary whim...Come up with a series of fantasies and emotional ups and downs that take you out of the state of flow immediately.

This kind of idea that "bursts" into your mind is called "intrusive thinking".

Source: Freepik

What can we do in this situation? Some of you may say "mindfulness". Exactly, mindfulness is a way to build up attention, which can strengthen our control of attention and inhibit DMN activity. However, there is still some controversy in modern neuroscience about the effects of mindfulness, which needs to be further explored.

What is a more direct and effective approach? It's improving our ability to get into a state of flow quickly. For example, I‘m going to write an article that is expected to take 2 hours, I would not force myself to pay full attention in the 2 hours, which is very unrealistic. I would break the 2 hours into multiple phases, maybe 15-30 minutes each, and then ask myself to work without distractions in one phase and try to inhibit the DMN in my brain. Referring to how to divide the stage, I prefer to take the working content as a unit instead of the time. Just like the example, I will divide the article into 5-6 chapters, with each chapter being a stage. Taking a break or doing something else such as replying to emails or organizing data after finishing one stage.

So how do you get yourself into flow fast? A simple tip: write down your thoughts, ideas and progress during the work process -- not recording everything in detail, just some keywords. In this way, you are able to enter the state as soon as possible when you come back to the work.

In addition, It is important to choose the proper level of difficulty. What is the nature of flow? It is the intensity of thinking that is just enough to fill your attention, not too much or too less. So if your work is a little bit simple, you can try to give yourself a boost of difficulty and making something different, fully engage your brain.

We can get the second principle of high efficiency:

Instead of pursuing long-term concentration, it is better to cultivate your ability to enter flow at any time, divide your work into multiple stages, and “sprint” in small amounts and many times.

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Click here to learn more about【How to be High Efficiency? (Part 2)】