One Point Attention

Do you always accomplish all the tasks you set out to accomplish? Do you always struggle to complete to-do lists? Do you always roll over tasks same tasks to the next day? Is multi-tasking taking a toll on you? Do you want to improve our productivity? Is there a better way? 

Perhaps! Lets analyze a routine day in our lives. You start your day in office with the normal lists of things going in your mind. You have your hot cup of coffee and start going though your to-do lists. Since normally mornings are the most quietest of hours, you decide to start with the article you need to submit in the in house news magazine. You barely mange to write one line, when a mail pops-up and you immediately shift focus to responding to the mail and while you are at it, you decide to clear you mail box completely. By the time you finish with your mailbox, it’s 1200 hrs and time for another cup of hot brew. Your mobile is ringing all this while and you are busy resolving critical issues in your job. Your boss calls you for a meeting and gives you certain action items to be accomplished before the end of the day. You drop everything and deliver on Boss’s stuff first. By the time you complete, its time for your team meeting. Lots happening and you are constantly multi-tasking between your phones, mails, meetings and other important stuff. The article you started first thing in the morning has been visited at least 20 times in the day but you have managed to only get half way through. Its now 2000 hrs and your wife is already upset as you have made coming home late a habit. So you decide to wind up for the day and save the pending article. You add it in your to-do list for the next day and make it top priority!

Don’t you feel that that is a typical day in most of our lives? We set out to do a list of things but at the end of the day we realize that have not even completed half of it. We simply end up using our time in the addressing fire items and the creative work (like articles) becomes always the most difficult to accomplish. The result is more worries, which lead to higher stress and ultimately depression. What could you have done better?

Our mind has a limitation! Contrary to many theories, it has the ability to focus only at one thing at a time. If you observe carefully and give a single pointed attention to a particular task at hand, then that task may get completed in 1/4th the time or even less. This happens because every time we switch our mind, we again have to re-process information from scratch. We can argue that this is hardly noticeable as it may take just a few seconds but doesn’t every drop fills an ocean. If we accumulate all these drops or focus our energies into one task at a time then not only we will accomplish more but also remain in control with a stable mind.

One point attention not only has the ability to prevent stress but also increases the strength of our mind. Its understandable to switch between mundane tasks which are embedded in your sub-conscious but to enhance effectiveness, we need to have a one point attention towards at least the creative or shall we say conscious tasks.

Practice One Point Attention to enhance your Productivity!