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Racing the Clock and Multi-tasking

Racing the Clock

Racing the clock – pushing yourself to accomplish things in a rush – is a main cause of stress. National polls of Americans have found that the number one source of stress is not having enough time. Many of us are continually rushing, pressuring ourselves to perform faster, creating extra mental and emotional stress that severely taxes our minds and bodies by trying to "squeeze in" more things in less time. How many ways do you push yourself, and rush, and create extra stress?

When's the last time you were late to work, or an appointment, and were racing the clock? Rushing through traffic, trying to make every light, getting impatient and annoyed with slow drivers? How many times each week does this happen to you? And in the office, how often are you juggling phone calls, e-mail, instant messages and computer work?

Studies show mental stress can elevate blood pressure dramatically, causing 3 to 6 times greater risk of heart attack.  Racing the clock – in all its forms – irritates your nervous system and forces your heart to worker harder and, over time, damages your heart. And the emotional stress from racing the clock triggers excess cortisol release, causing extra belly fat on your stomach and around your waist.

Multi-tasking

Now research is confirming what we suspected all along – that multitasking slows you down and increases your chances of making mistakes, according to cognitive scientists and at the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan. Also agreeing are neuroscientists at the Human Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbuit Univeristy, who point out that even thought the brain is a powerhouse with a hundred billion neurons and hundreds of trillions of synaptic connections, one of its limitations is that it cannot concentrate on two things at once.

In fact, the Vanderbilt researchers published their study in the journal Neuron where they used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to identity that the critical juncture in the brain that limits its concentration is the inability of the lateral frontal and prefrontal cortex, and also the superior frontal cortex, to process the two tasks at once.

The participants performance proved that if one given one task at a time, there is no delay in their response time. However, when given two tasks at once, the delay resulted in a 1-2 second delay. Imagine that delay occurring while one is driving at 60 mph and talking on a cellphone. That 1-2 seconds delayed response could be the difference between life or death.

Though younger people are considered to be the most adept at multi-tasking, research at the Institute for the Future of the Mind at Oxford Univeristy shows that while older minds may think slower, they have a faster fluid intelligence and are better at blocking out interruptions and, therefore scored higher than the younger subjects at working through interruptions.

Further testing has shown that when one is distracted (called dual-task learning) by music with lyrics, emails and text messaging, etc., academic learning and studying are impaired. So the jury is in and the verdict is that multi-tasking is less efficient and more prone to errors, along with the fact that is creates a mental strain that is stressful and damaging to the body.

Suggestions: Experts recommend checking email messages only once an hour, if needed. Listening to soothing background music can improve concentration (pop music, television, instant messaging are negative influences). While driving, cellphones (even with a hands-free headset) are dangerous. (One survey found 30% of all traffic accidents involve a cellphone!)

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Source: Stress Tips Handbook Academy of Stress Management Richard Lewis ISBN 0-9664069-4

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