My last semester of graduate school I took a
mindfulness and health class. Some of the principles I’ve learned have been
really helpful on my healthy journey. One comment my professor made that really
stuck with me was rarely do we work on a task and give it our
complete attention. Our mind is usually juggling a million other things that we
have to take care of. Do laundry, wash hair, go grocery shopping, edit that
paper. It eats away at our time. We don’t fully exist in the present moment
because we’re so busy planning for the next ones. When she said this I could totally relate. As students especially, you have so many
responsibilities to take care of that it seems crazy to not multitask. What I
realized though, was that she was not saying don’t plan ahead or think about
the future. In fact, she was encouraging that we do. Create a list of things that you have
to do, prioritize the list, and focus on tasks one at a time. For the sake of full disclosure, I’m still working on this one. Why? Because it’s hard! It’s easy to get
sidetracked, and I don't know if I’ll ever "master" it. I have noticed though,
that when I am able to give a task my undivided attention, I complete it much faster. This week, choose one task on your to do list, completely focus on that task until it's completed, and see how much faster
you’re able to complete it. It may surprise you!
