As the kids like to say #mindblown

I have been exploring the world of ADHD as some of the symptoms show up in my life on a day to day bases and I, perhaps wrongly, assumed that was just normal life for everyone.

That journey is for another blog.

One thing that I have finally noticed is that what I referred to as “multitasking” truly is just me getting distracted from the task at hand. I only called myself an excellent multitasker (note to self remove that line from resume) because I get a number of things done in the timeline required. Even if getting the tasks done in that timeline required a last minute push.

Now that I am aware of it I see in consistently in my day to day life. Change will be slow but I am pretty sure it will be gratifying.

The Optimistic Learner tells us:

… next time you’re studying while watching the new episode of Riverdale and responding to a comment on Facebook, you’re:

1. Rapidly burning up the fuel (oxygenated glucose) that we need to stay focused which leads to exhaustion.
2. In the long-term, you are inviting anxiety, aggressive and impulsive behaviors
3. Causing the brain to cry out for more dopamine, constituting a negative neural addiction²
4. Reducing the effective IQ by 10 points³
5. Suffering a decrease in performance⁴
6. Reducing the ability to filter out irrelevant distractions⁵
7. Sending the new information to the wrong part of the brain which means easily forgetting them.⁶

Read more about how multitasking isn’t as effective as you think: The Myth of Multitasking and the Reality of Our Distracted Attention