I get a steady stream of both children and adults with their presenting complaints being ADD. Some are unaware that in many cases their own actions have brought the ADD syndrome on. Others feel that their (ability?) to multitask is cool and have not yet connected multitasking with their inability to focus and to stay on target with tasks or projects until they are completed.

Multitasking has become a buzzword, much like the cool sounding MBA buzzwords that populate so many of today’s conference calls and memos. Driving one’s car while texting and talking on the phone should be more correctly called conflict-tasking, not multi-tasking. Reading an email while simultaneously watching television and doing homework would be another form of conflict-tasking.

A businessman I was working with told me of an interview that he himself had experienced. An HR person conducted this businessman’s phone interview while the HR person was driving his car and hunting for a parking space at the airport! Many notions come to mind. Could there be another way for that HR person to communicate that my client was unimportant? Would there be another way that the HR person could demonstrate his lack of courtesy, class and good manners? Could he find another way to illustrate that he was an exceptionally poor ambassador for the company that he represented?

A person feels like they are getting more done when they multitask. This is because they are keeping themselves over busy, at least maybe slightly overwhelmed and most likely in a mild state of confusion. In reality, they are fatiguing their brain by causing it to keep connecting – disconnecting – connecting – disconnecting etc.  I am well aware that many people pride themselves on multi–tasking, but unless they have the brain of an alien from another solar system, they are simply deluding themselves and decreasing their efficiency.

Everyone’s brain is capable of holding onto only one thought at a time. Did I say everyone’s? When we call on our brain to multi-task we are asking it not to focus, but to keep switching it’s attention back and forth between those several tasks. When a person keeps themselves in a continual beta mode, they are not able to utilize the beneficial and vital problem solving alpha waves. They lay in bed at night trying to fall asleep, while with the problems of the day keep playing over and over and over in their mind. They keep themselves in a continual beta mode state until they drop into a fitful non refreshing sleep out of sheer exhaustion. Then the alarm goes off and they are out of the house in 35 minutes, attempting to catch up. But they never do… That lifestyle causes this individual that is unable to concentrate and unable to focus to be ineffectual – contrary to what his ego thinks! For additional source material check the blog page on my website. Some titles to peruse would be Stress, Sickness and Syndromes, The Mind and It’s Modes, Disconnect!, Reclaim Your Brain! and Mental fibrillation.

Want to have better focus? Want to be able to concentrate? Want to enable your mind to function on a higher level? Want to quit being in a stress mode going from one crisis to another? Call Bob Crow for a complimentary consultation.

Bob Crow is a behavioral therapist board certified in clinical and medical hypnotherapy. He practices in Atlanta Georgia working with those wishing to overcome stress, panic, phobias, procrastination and fears. With those that wish to perform better in sports, sales, public speaking, to stop smoking, to lose weight permanently, to quit sabotaging relationships and any other area of behavioral change that would make life more enjoyable.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 12th, 2010 at 5:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.