Focus. Focus dammit!

Back in the old country, when we were kids, my sister--who is the eldest--studied and did her homework while playing music from the radio in the background.  And for whatever reason, she listened to Hindi movie songs, which is how I got hooked on to those old melodies.

My grandmother often commented on this habit of studying while listening to music.  A rather gentle woman that my grandmother was, she merely suggested that my sister do one thing at a time. The grandmother and the granddaughter continued to say and do what each said and did ;)

I never had this problem though.  Primarily because I rarely ever did any school work at home!

But I have pretty much been only a do-one-thing-at-a-time guy.

In this modern day of multitasking,  I joke about my inability to do more than one thing at the same time.  But, the jokes aside, I am always confident that my work quality is better because I pay attention to what I do.

Increasingly, it is a rare young person who seems to do only one thing at a time.  In my classes, I don't want to come across as a fuddy-duddy who tells the youth what not to do. Especially when I am brown-skinned and with a funny accent.  Instead, I channel humor to remind them about the virtues of focusing on the task at hand.  I ban the use of electronic gadgets when the class is in session.

It is a losing battle, I know.

But people don’t multitask solely because they see no harm in it; they perceive benefits. They say they multitask for efficiency, to fight boredom or to keep up with social media.

I don't understand why people prefer these routes.  "Instead of multitasking, take more rest breaks, and get your social media fix during a break."  Exactly!

We need to pay attention to how much — or how little — we are paying attention.