Mono-Task For a Healthy Brain

You try to focus on something and the phone rings, you attend the call and get back to focusing, a message pops up on the screen, and you drift away. What is this doing to your attention? Fracturing.

Millions of neurons in the brain constantly monitor the environment to select the most important thing for us to focus on. These neurons are called attentional filters & require glucose and oxygen to function. Even though the human brain is only 2% of the body weight, it takes up 20% of the energy.

Multi-tasking is the enemy of focused attentional system. It takes more energy to shift from one task to another than to focus on one particular thing. Daydreaming takes less energy than multitasking. Sea-saw between focusing and daydreaming helps recalibrate and restore the brain.

Organize your time in a way that allows you to focus. It will make you less neurochemically depleted.

Article inspired by the book “The Organized Mind” by Daniel J. Levitin

Note: Daydreaming (mind wandering) is not necessarily a bad thing, if directed towards higher thoughts.